Category Archives: Bitcoin

Trumps Former Sanctions Chief Joins Bitcoin Investigation Firm Advisory Board As Part Of Expanded $49 Million Investment – Forbes

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Sigal Mandelker, then-U.S. Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, speaks ... [+] during a 2018 conference on cyber law enforcement at the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Justice Department charged nine Iranian citizens with hacking hundreds of companies and academic institutions to steal more than $3.4 billion in trade secrets and other data on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

U.S. President Donald Trumps former Treasury under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, Sigal Mandelker, has revealed her first project since leaving Trumps Treasury and joining venture firm Ribbit Capital earlier this year. In addition to joining the expanded $49 million Series B in cryptocurrency investigation startup Chainalysis, Mandelker will work on the startups board of advisors.

Mandelkers firm and actor-turned investor Ashton Kutchers Sound Ventures participated in a $13 million extension to the previously announced Series B, as part of a larger push at the startup to deepen its government relationships and focus on using transactions paid for in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to track human rights abuses and other illicit activity. Cryptocurrency use for illicit purposes more than doubled to $11.5 billion in 2019, still only accounting for little more than 1% of the total transactions.

While the investment is doubly-notable in that it is both Mandelkers first public work since leaving the Treasury Department, and it is in a company that works with bitcoin, ethereum, XRP and 96 other cryptocurrencies, it is also notable for the continuation of an increasingly clear trend of influential regulators joining the cryptocurrency companies they once oversaw. Former deputy assistant to U.S. President George W. Bush, Juan Zarate, joined another Ribbit portfolio company, Coinbases advisory board in 2014; former chairman of the influential New York Department of Financial Services, Ben Lawsky joined Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC, a $15 billion advisor with ties to multiple bitcoin funds in 2017; and most recently the law firm of the former chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Chris Giancarlo, was hired by Ripple this year.

As part of the investment, which values the company at less than $1 billion, Mandelker, 48, will meet with the Chainalysis team on an as-needed basis to share with them insights gleaned from her own past experience investigating crime that relies on blockchain, and to help them build out new partnerships in both the public and private sectors. The fact that they're building relationships, terrific relationships, both with financial institutions and with the government sector, including with law enforcement, is going to be really important for the future of this industry, says Mandelker.

Born in Chicago, in 1971, Mandelker earned a Bachelors Degree from the University of Michigan and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, before serving as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. After six years working at various government agencies, she moved to the private sector as a partner at law firm Proskauer Rose LLP.

Then, in March 2017, Trump appointed Mandelker as Treasury under secretary where she oversaw the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control, (OFAC), the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, and the Treasurys Office of Intelligence and Analysis, which identifies and maps illicit transaction networks.

Mandelker had her first big success using digital currencies to trace illicit activities in 2008, when a Department of Justice team she led helped convict the directors of pre-blockchain digital currency company, E-Gold for their role helping launder funds used to buy child pornography and more. In September 2019, Mandelker made one of her biggest cryptocurrency investigation breaks with the announcement of sanctions against three hacker groups that helped the North Korean government steal and launder billions of dollars in cryptocurrency funds.

Mandelker says she first met Ribbit cofounder Micky Malka earlier this year. Malka sold his first company, a digital wallet called Lemon in 2013 for $46 million, using the funds to become an early investor in bitcoin startups, Coinbase, Robinhood and Xapo. The two hit it off, bonding in part over both having immediate family who survived the holocaust and their desire to fight injustice in the world, she says. She was officially brought onboard in April as a general partner.

In addition to her role helping build relationships as an advisor to Chainalysis, Mandelker will focus on a more full-time basis helping Ribbit identify new investment opportunities, answering regulatory questions for other portfolio companies, and looking for new ways to connect regulators with a wide range of financial technology, thinking through how to help build bridges between the fintech world and the regulator community, whether it's here or abroad, she says.

The New York-based company has now raised a total of about $66 million, from investors including Accel, Benchmark and Digital Currency Group, employs 158 people, and has 295 clients, including the Bank of Montreal and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, which is managed by Mandelkers former employer, the U.S. Department of Treasury, through a different department.

The company isnt revealing its most recent revenue, though in 2018, it generated $8 million selling services to investigators looking into cryptocurrency transactions and companies looking to ensure they comply with anti-money-laundering and know your customer requirements, enough to land it a place on the Forbes Next Billion-Dollar Startups list. Though the company isnt revealing the terms of the investment, CEO Michael Gronager says they havent quite achieved that milestone yet. We'll work hard to get there pretty soon, he says.

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Trumps Former Sanctions Chief Joins Bitcoin Investigation Firm Advisory Board As Part Of Expanded $49 Million Investment - Forbes

Bitcoin Undo Button & Fleeing Firms: Bad Crypto News of the Week – Cointelegraph

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Maybe its time to start talking about boring Bitcoin. The dollar price has moved barely half a percentage point over the last week, remaining around the $9,200 mark. Bitcoins holders, though, dont expect the coin to remain a boring store of value forever. A survey by Bitcoin IRA found that 42 percent of the crypto custodians customers expect the price to reach $15,000 by the end of the year. Even that might not prompt sales though. Some 57 percent said they were holding for the long term.

Those optimists might be wrong, though. SteveCrypt0, a popular trader, has suggested that Bitcoin could fall to $6,000 though it would still remain bullish.

Of course, SteveCrypt0 could be wrong and he wouldnt be the only one to make a mistake. A survey has found that 55 percent of respondents have made errors when sending cryptocurrency, and 18 percent have lost funds that way. An Israeli blockchain startup has a solution. Its created a kind of undo button for crypto transfers. (Its a confirmation code).

An undo button might be useful in Russia at the moment. A court in that country has ruled that thieves who kidnapped someone and forced him to send them 99.7 BTC dont have to pay back the Bitcoins. Digital currency isnt property, the judge ruled.

Its not just Russia thats producing strange rules though. US senators are trying to pass a law that will give law enforcement access to encrypted data. It requires manufacturers to include a backdoor that will enable them to decrypt information.

Other countries are doing better. In China, the municipal government of Beijing has released a 20-point plan to make the Chinese capital a global hub for blockchain technologies. In India, a decision by the Supreme Court to reverse laws stopping banks from serving crypto traders and businesses has led to a surge of activity from the countrys crypto app developers.

But its not all good news. After trailblazing the development of blockchain technology, Estonia is grappling with the effects of the European Unions new Know Your Customer laws. Firms are fleeing.

Fortunately, their flights might be easier to book soon. Travel firms are rolling out more blockchain-based experiments and pilot projects to make travel cheaper and more efficient. Those moves come as analytics tools from the Big Four accountancy firms promise to make cryptotrading easier for institutional investors.

And finally, if you ever wanted to see crypto forecaster Mati Greenspan in red lycra and white underpants, heres your chance. Greenspan is Forecaster in the Bad Crypto Podcasts Blockchain Heroes set of digital trading cards. Who said Bitcoin was boring?

Check out the audio version here:

Joel Comm is an internet pioneer, New York Times best-selling author, futurist speaker and co-host of The Bad Crypto Podcast. Thats a fancy way of saying he writes words, says things and loves to play with cryptos

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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Bitcoin Undo Button & Fleeing Firms: Bad Crypto News of the Week - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin Up 27% in First Half of 2020, Beating Gold, Silver and Platinum – CoinDesk – CoinDesk

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Bitcoin showed its luster during the first half of 2020 by rallying more than 27% percent amid mediocre returns from precious metals including gold, silver and platinum.

Gold underperformed bitcoin by nearly 11 percentage points despite gaining 16 percent in the first half of 2020 and making eight-year highs in late June. Silver and platinum both finished the first half of 2020 with negative gains.

Bitcoins strong performance is no shock to some analysts, especially in context of the benchmark cryptocurrencys increasing correlation with equity markets. Given that equities are now near, or in some cases above, their highs reached in February, its not surprising to see bitcoin do the same, said Ryan Watkins, bitcoin analyst at Messari.

Why compare returns from bitcoin to gold or other precious metals? Gold is bitcoins most aspirational asset, explained Watkins. Like bitcoin, gold is a scarce commodity whose value is derived almost entirely from its monetary premium.

Unlike gold, however, bitcoin investors have historically experienced more extreme volatility. Silver and platinum were also much more volatile than gold through the first half of 2020.

Bitcoin and gold could be seen more like complementary investments than competitives ones based on their performance over the past six months, said David Lifchitz, managing partner at Paris-based quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm ExoAlpha. Given bitcoins historic volatility, holding digital and physical gold together could provide a better risk-return profile than holding either of them individually, said Lifchitz.

Investors typically adjust their portfolios based on the amount of risk required to achieve a certain return. Increased returns often bring with it higher volatility or risk. Depending on how assets correlate, though, a properly weighted portfolio can achieve a higher expected return with a lower level of risk than would be found in a portfolio containing just one asset.

Investing in bitcoin and the less-volatile gold during the first half of 2020 could have reduced an investors risk without sacrificing returns, Lifchitz told CoinDesk. Equal investments in gold and bitcoin, for example, could have more or less matched returns from an investment only in bitcoin while suffering less of a drawdown in March, Lifchitz explained.

But risk-adjusted returns from bitcoin and gold over the last six months may not hold true going forward, said Lifchitz. For one thing, the cryptocurrency market has grown eerily quiet over the past few weeks as bitcoins volatility has plummeted.

A Bloomberg July report on bitcoin noted bitcoins 260-day volatility is at the lowest versus the same gold-risk measure since the crypto assets parabolic 2017 rally. Senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone, who authored the report, said, Volatility should continue declining as bitcoin extends its transition to the crypto equivalent of gold from a highly speculative asset.

Bitcoins dropping volatility to historic lows could quickly change directions, however. McGlone described bitcoin as a resting bull ready for a breakout, adding, We expect recent compression to be resolved via higher prices.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Bitcoin Up 27% in First Half of 2020, Beating Gold, Silver and Platinum - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The Popular Stablecoin Tether Is Now Circulating on the Bitcoin Cash Network – Bitcoin News

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The most popular stablecoin tether (USDT) has officially been minted on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain via the Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP). At press time theres only 1,010 SLP-based USDT in circulation, as the firm Tether Limited seems to be issuing small amounts and testing the SLP framework.

Tether (USDT) is the king of stablecoins in the crypto economy and according to the companys transparency page, there are more than $9.8 billion tethers in existence.

The stablecoin is a token that is also hosted on a number of blockchains including the Ethereum network, Omni Layer, Algorand, Tron, Liquid, and the EOS chain. Not too long ago, news.Bitcoin.com revealed that tether (USDT) was migrating some coins over to the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) blockchain via the Simple Ledger Protocol.

Tether Limiteds transparency page now shows that the company has been minting and testing the SLP framework. The data website simpleledger.info shows that the Tether team has officially minted 3,027 USDTs so far on the BCH chain.

However, 2,017 SLP-based USDT tokens have been burned, which only leaves 1,010 SLP-based USDT in circulation at the time of publication. A thousand dollars worth of stablecoins is not much, but Bitcoin Cash proponents believe that the company is simply trialing the SLP infrastructure.

Simpleledger.info also shows that the baton is alive, which means USDTs can be minted at any time. The genesis of the SLP-based USDT shows that the tokens were born on May 25, 2020. Searching the term tether in the simpleledger.info database also shows there is a number of phony tethers people have created since the SLP network came out.

The official USDT token ID is shown at Tether Limiteds official website, alongside the balances of tether on other blockchains. Theres been a total of 50 SLP-based USDT transactions so far on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

The SLP-based USDT rich list shows that this address has the most stablecoins with a balance of 874.14 USDT at the time of publication. The rest of the coins in circulation are spread out through a number of different addresses.

The largest amount of USDTs on any blockchain is held on ETH with $6 billion in ERC20-based tethers to-date. Of course, Bitcoin Cash fans were both pleased and skeptical about the appearance of USDTs on BCH.

On the subreddit r/btc, BCH fans discussed the recently issued SLP-based USDT on the forum. On July 7, Sideshift.ai announced that the Bitcoin Cash version of USDT is now live on the swapping platform.

BCH proponents also discussed holding USDTs on the Bitcoin.com Wallet thanks to the recently added asset breakdown and stablecoin features. On Twitter, the Sideshift team wrote: Be one of the first humans to shift USDT on SLP.

What do you think about tether (USDT) being minted on the Bitcoin Cash chain? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Tether, Simpleledger.info, Twitter, Sideshift.ai,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Demand for Bitcoin Will See a Dramatic Shift in 8 Years – Retail Investors to Eat up Entire New Supply | Economics – Bitcoin News

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A recent report from ZUBR Research explains that by 2028, retail demand for bitcoin will exceed the new supply. The report highlights that in eight years as Bitcoins supply rate decreases retail size addresses [will] begin to eat up all the new supply alone. Even the next halving in 2024 could see retail accounting for acquiring 50% of the bitcoins in circulation.

Not too long ago, cryptocurrency proponents witnessed the Bitcoin (BTC) networks third halving, which cut the block reward by 50% on May 11, 2020. Just before the third BTC halving, the active supply issuance or inflation rate was around 3.8%.

Today that number is steadily dropping and at the time of publication, BTCs inflation rate is 3.51%. On June 29, a research report published by ZUBR Research details that in eight years, retail demand will outshine the rate of issuance by a long shot.

The study called Retail Investors Steady in Physical Bitcoin Snatch-Up explains how the BTC network has entered the next reward era. With 90% of all Bitcoins already mined, the remaining supply is estimated to take nearly 120 years to come to market, ZUBR wrote. This figure the remaining 10% taking another 120 years shows just how scarce the cryptocurrency already is.

In time one of the great burdens will be liquidity and physical Bitcoins become harder to come by. The researchers findings also indicate that Covid-19 gave crypto proponents a glimpse at some potential scenarios. ZUBR Research also discussed the question of whether Bitcoin is a better version of gold or not.

The study says that investors will have to weigh this decision as demand has moved in decline for gold further extending that gap available on the market during the Covid-19 crisis. No doubt, Bitcoin saw strong demand in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The demand was similarly witnessed for gold, the report highlights.

ZUBR researchers add:

There is a very critical difference to gold, however. Bitcoin supply constraints will not be a result caused by black swan events (such as the global COVID-19 lockdown that shut-in mines), but the permanent perpetual nature of the store-of-value cryptocurrency that is designed to cut off new supply.

The study notes that the researchers leveraged data from the analytics firm Chainalysis. ZUBR predicts that retail demand will continue to grow this year and by 2028 the demand will be far greater than issuance.

Just like with gold markets, the demand for bitcoin while remaining scarce could send the price of BTC sky high. The next halving will sill a lot of retail and investor demand but the fifth halving will see uncontrollable buying pressure.

Extrapolating future demand at this pace points to a very dramatic shift in 2028 when Bitcoins supply rate further decreases and these retail size addresses begin to eat up all the new supply alone, ZUBR estimates. By the time the next reward era comes around in 2024, retail could potentially account for eating up over 50% of the physical supply, the researchers added.

The paper concludes by stressing:

With retail [investors] gunning hard, these supply constraints might come sooner rather than later should growth in demand from smaller investors remain as steady as it has in the past half-decade.

What do you think about the theory that retail demand will outshine bitcoin issuance in eight years? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, ZUBR Research

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Breadwallet and Ledger Live Released Fixes for Flaws in Bitcoin Wallets – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

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DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ResearchAndMarkets.com published a new article on the bitcoin industry "Breadwallet and Ledger Live Released Fixes for Flaws in Bitcoin Wallets"

A team at ZenGo discovered the BigSpender bug affecting major crypto-wallets, including Ledger Live, Edge, BreadWallet and potentially many more. The bug exploits how certain wallets handle the replace-by-fee feature which allows a user to swap an unconfirmed transaction with another transaction that has a higher fee. The RBF feature has become a standard way for users to send bitcoin and was developed as a way to circumvent slow confirmation times by paying more in fees.

Attackers can send funds to a wallet and set the fees low enough to almost guarantee the transaction will not receive a confirmation. The attacker can then use the RBF feature to replace the pending transaction with a transaction to another wallet that they control. For vulnerable wallets, this pending transaction will be reflected as an increase in the account balance, leading some users to believe they have received funds even though they have not. Attackers can also use the BigSpender vulnerability to send multiple fake transactions and reroute them before they are confirmed. This can cause the victims stated balance and actual funds to become decoupled and could make the wallet unusable. Both Breadwallet and Ledger Live have released fixes to prevent the attacks.

To see the full article and a list of related reports on the market, visit "Breadwallet and Ledger Live Released Fixes for Flaws in Bitcoin Wallets".

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ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Developer Reveals Layer-Two Private Messaging and Payment System on Bitcoin Cash | Technology – Bitcoin News

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On July 4, 2020, the Bitcoin Cash proponent Cain published an interview with the blockchain developer, Shammah Chancellor, about a new project called Stamp Chat. At its basic level, Stamp is a prototype of a layer-2 private messaging and payment system on Bitcoin Cash. It implements stealth [plus] confidential transactions on top of Bitcoin Cash using layer-2 protocol technologies.

This week Bitcoin Cash supporters were introduced to a new tool called Stamp, an encrypted message and payment system that leverages the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) chain. The project is being developed by the software programmer Shammah Chancellor, otherwise known as @micropresident.

The project was introduced on Saturday, July 4, 2020, by the Bitcoin Cash proponent Cain (@bchcain) via the read.cash blog. Cain gives a summary of how governments today have the ability to censor our speech online, and our financial lives as well through centralized parties. The BCH enthusiast highlights how our freedom of expression is censored and monitored by the powers that be.

The fact that we are being monitored limits our freedom of thought and our freedom of expression, Cains interview stressed. You might think twice about entering something into a search engine, or posting something on Facebook or Twitter. This limits our ability to communicate and explore ideas, and this is why I am so excited by Stamp, the new Bitcoin Cash project being developed by Shammah Chancellor, aka @micropresident.

Cains post further added:

Stamp is still in its early stages and only available on testnet, but the interface already looks polished and many features like group chats and nested messages have already been deployed. According to his Github page: Stamp is a prototype of a layer-2 private messaging and payment system on Bitcoin Cash. It implements stealth [plus] confidential transactions on top of Bitcoin Cash using layer-2 protocol technologies.

Individuals who are interested in Stamp can check out the Github repository and get more familiar with the project. The Github repos disclaimer is a touch different and states: Stamp is in early alpha development stage. There will be multiple breaking changes from now until a stable release. We default to the Bitcoin Cash testnet as to protect against lost funds.

Those who are interested in testing the Stamp protocol can do so by accessing the cashweb/stamp/releases section and grabbing test coins from faucet.fullstack.cash.

The Stamp developers who contribute to the project also have a Telegram chat channel as well for people who want to learn more about the project. Shammah Chancellor also describes the Stamp project in great detail during his interview with Cain.

Stamp is the name of the wallet that uses a number of backend protocols, the developer explained. These protocols are a suite called Cashweb, with the vision being that everything online is powered by Bitcoin Cash. Fundamentally, Cashweb is powered via standard web technologies: Websockets, JWT tokens, HTTP/2. The idea being to make it easy for non-cryptocurrency developers to integrate with.

Cashweb is a [three] tier network, Shammah Chancellor continued. The first tier being Bitcoin Cash. The second tier is a keyserver network, which is used to look up, in a cryptographically secure way, important information about a Bitcoin Cash address. The third tier is a messaging system (called relay servers) which allows wallets to pass, encrypted, structured messages between them. The developer concluded:

When you add a contact to a Stamp wallet, it reaches out to a keyserver and requests your contact information. This is then verified, and used to determine which relay server they accept messages on. Once your wallet has this information, it can start exchanging structured, encrypted, messages between itself and another user.

Cryptocurrency supporters who are interested in reading the rest of the interview between Cain and Shammah Chancellor can follow this link here that stems from the read.cash blog.

On the Reddit forum r/btc, BCH proponents seemed pleased with the announcement and some people contributed to the development funding. Looks promising, an individual wrote on Reddit. I sent a bit of funding. Good luck with it.

What do you think about the Stamp project built on the Bitcoin Cash network? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Stamp, Read.cash, Cain

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Equities Buoy Bitcoin, But Price Headwinds Are Unchanged – Forbes

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Data analyzing in trading market. Working set for analyzing financial statistics and analyzing a ... [+] market data. Data analyzing from charts and graph to find out the result.

Earlier today, Pfizer PFE reported that its early stage Covid-19 vaccine trials have produced optimistic results. The news sent equities and bitcoin higher, while dropping gold beneath the psychological $1,800 level.

Despite the Pfizer-led reprieve for bitcoin, its price movements since the halving have largely been disappointing, especially amidst the Feds extraordinary actions, which have benefited store of value assets like gold, historically.

The main question floating around the crypto investment world is, Why isnt price rising? Three possible explanations have floated to the top.

In 2019, a group called PlusToken, systemically scammed numerous investors throughout China to the total of more than 200,000 bitcoin, or ~ $1.84 billion, at the time of writing. Since then, the scammers have meticulously liquidated their ill-gotten gains on several exchanges. Liquidations have created a consistent and strong selling pressure to bitcoin according to notable fund manager, Travis Kling.

However, as seen by todays price action, the correlation between the S&P 500 and bitcoin has been rising steadily as Covid-19 cases spike in several states. The popular bitcoin analyst, PlanB, has stated recently that equity correlation is driving bitcoin, not scammers. He further notes that I think it is a silly narrative. In the old days if traditional markets moved without news or cause, it was always "the hedge funds.

Finally, others surmise bitcoin is a free market asset and naturally oscillates, which make correlations unstable and temporary over time. Popular crypto trader, Scott Melker, notes I do think that bitcoin has benefited from a bull market (equities) - that's just logical...but that does not mean that those assets have been correlated. He further states that if you have to make a comparison, I think a naked eye on the DXY (US Dollar Index) vs BTC chart is more compelling...clear inverse correlation.

https://www.tradingview.com/x/FRt9y4Lu/

While each faction believes their conclusions are the leading driver of bitcoins tepid movement, no one knows for certain given the unverified price effect of scammer sales, and inconsistent correlations between both equities and US dollar index to bitcoin.

https://coinmetrics.io/correlation-charts/#assets=btc-dxy,btc-s&p

Pragmatism would suggest that some combination of the aforementioned elements are driving bitcoin. However, only after time has passed and looking in hindsight, will readers know the dominant factor.

Disclosure: The author owns bitcoin and ethereum.

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Equities Buoy Bitcoin, But Price Headwinds Are Unchanged - Forbes

Alleged scammers hid $14 million of stolen money in Bitcoin – Decrypt

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The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) suspects that a group of Nigerian nationals, who allegedly stole at least $17.5 million from two Chicago-based firms, hid some of their illicitly gained money in Bitcoin, the Daily Post reported yesterday.

Prior to their arrest, the suspects allegedly hatched a plan of a fraud on a global scale that could net them $435 million, according to the report.

Olalekan Jakob Ponle, also known as Mr. Woodbery, allegedly organized a large-scale phishing scheme against two Chicago-based companies by posing as their accountants. One firm reportedly lost $2.3 million in this manner while another companys employees transferred over $15.2 million to the suspects.

The emails were nearly identical to prior legitimate emails sent over the companys email account, but the fraudulent emails instructed victims to wire funds to a bank account that was set up by money mules at the direction of Ponle, stated a criminal complaint filed by the US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and a special agent-in-charge of the Chicago office of the FBI.

Ponle then instructed the mules to convert the fraud proceeds to Bitcoin and send them to a virtual wallet that Ponle owned and operated, according to the US Attorneys Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

Ponle, as well as his co-conspirator Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, and 10 other suspects were recently arrested in the United Arab Emirates and will face cyber fraud charges in Chicago. The alleged cyber fraud scheme lasted approximately from January to September 2019, the report added.

Preliminary blockchain analysis indicates that PONLE received at least 1,494.71506296 bitcoin related to these [business email compromise] schemes, valued at approximately $6,599,499.98, the FBIs affidavit read, adding These schemes resulted in attempted and actual losses to victim companies in the tens of millions. PONLE directed money mules in the US to open bank accounts in the names of victim companies.

Today, Ponles alleged BTC stash would be worth nearly $14 million.

Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, the director of Dubais Criminal Investigation Department, said the local police also confiscated incriminating documents of a planned fraud on a global scale worth AED 1.6 billion ($435 million), according to the official page of Dubai police on Facebook. The details of this plan were not disclosed.

Apart from the documents, police officers also seized over 150 million United Arab Emirates dirhams ($40.9 million), 13 luxury cars worth approximately $6.8 million and dozens of digital devices containing 119,580 fraud files as well as addresses of 1,926,400 victims," Al Jallaf added.

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Bitcoin As A Payment System Crypto Cards And The Rocky Road They Travel – Forbes

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(Photo Illustration by Igor Golovniov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

The financial space was rocked by the news that German fintech group Wirecard filed for insolvency owing 3.5bn. Not only a financial failure but also a seemingly elaborate and sophisticated fraud, according to EY, the companys auditor for more than a decade.

Many companies using Wirecards service would have been struck by the news, and would have had to hit the panic buttons, including a few crypto companies using Wirecard for their own card payment systems.

Already a difficult operation to get right, crypto payment, and crypto payment cards are only starting to make their way into the mainstream but it is instances like this that really hinder their potential and growth. Bitcoin has had a few changes in designation over the years, and as it stands, making it a payment system is harder than it once was.

The major cryptocurrency has undergone a number of evolutions in its some 11 years of existence. The digital currency began life as a medium for exchange in transactions, and found its first use when 10,000 BTC was traded for two pizzas (those pizzas are now worth just shy of $100 million).

But, just like the value of those two pizzas has changed, so has the designation of Bitcoin. The digital asset is today seen far more like an investable asset. Bitcoin is spoken about in the same breath as stocks and commodities and is permeating the conversations of Paul Tudor Jones and the execs at CME, Fidelity and other corners of Wall Street.

However, this fluid flow of Bitcoins designation may well be seeing a shift back towards acting like A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System, as it is labelled in its own whitepaper. Recent news from Visa, PayPal and Venmo have many looking towards Bitcoin (or that should be cryptocurrencies, blockchain and the entire token ecosystem) for its potential in payments.

PayPal isrumouredto be rolling out direct sales of cryptocurrency to its over 300 million users, while it is posting job vacancies for blockchain experts. Visa has also started working towards the cryptocurrency space with apatentfor its own type of cryptocurrency, not to mention its support of the Coinbase cryptodebit card as a Visa Principal Member.

If there is indeed a move towards Bitcoin and crypto taking a new role in the evolving payments system, then the clues will probably be in the application. One of the biggest applications, and the possible bridge to the next evolution of payments, is the oldest, new, technology cards.

But, as therecent news surrounding Wirecardshows, this road for crypto cards is not an easy one. Just getting a foot in the traditional card scene can be difficult for Crypto payments solutions providers but then there are the companies that provide the payments railways to also consider.

The little pieces of plastic that nearly everyone carries around in their wallets are seen as so normal and so standard that little thought is given to their journey. However, debit and credit cards can be seen as the original fintech, and the original digitalization of cash.

This is why they are probably all the first place to look for the next iteration of digital cash and that could be crypto. I have already mentioned that Visa is doing a lot of work regarding crypto payments and tokenization, but its chief competitor Mastercard is not letting this new wave slip by.

I spoke with Suman Hughes, Director of Communications at Mastercard about their thoughts on cryptocurrency cards and the incorporation of crypto as a new payments system.

We see potential in cryptocurrency, especially in stablecoins. We have observed how using an internal stablecoin and tokenized fiat can improve settlement. We are driving the development of new products, including viable digital currencies that are safe, stable, reliable, and compliant, Hughes told me.

We are working with governments to explore Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which brings physical cash into the modern digital age. CBDCs can enable financial inclusion, increase the efficiency of payments infrastructure and reduce informal economies.

Unsurprisingly, the interest in the potential of crypto for a major payments network like Mastercard revolves around its potential for a broader application. CBDCs are certainly on the rise, and could become a standard implemented by governments, rolled out through the likes of MasterCard and into the hands of the individuals.

But, there is also no getting away from the original crypto space and those who are looking to utilize their decentralized coins and cryptos in a payments method. Coinbase,Foldand other big crypto companies have partnered with Visa and the likes to roll out cards, but there are others trying to compete.

I spoke with the CEO of Crypto.com, Kris Marszalek, a company looking to pioneer the way in regards to personal crypto payments cards. He explained how it is not a straightforward process to compete with the legacy payments networks, even if it is with a brand new technology.

Its definitely challenging for a crypto startup to roll out a card product that is ready for prime time, he told me. It needs to work well with traditional financial and payment networks, which means we have to partner with established players.

That was a judgment call we made from day one. We focused on compliance, security and privacy as the foundation on which the company should be built. Were building a globally trusted financial institution thats in the process of securing licenses in all major jurisdictions.

But we are also building for the future. Payment is always about adoption, from both a merchant and user standpoint.

It is not only difficult entering the legacy system of payment with new financial technology like Bitcoin, there are also the hurdles that come with some of these traditional companies. TheWirecard newshas rocked the financial world and with Crypto.com reliant on this company for its cards, they too were struck hard.

The FCA in the UK effectively shut down Crypto.comscard activityin the UK and Europe to try and stem the damage from Wirecards collapse, and forced Crypto.coms hand in looking for a new card service provider.

"The FCA effectively shut down Wirecard UK, the issuer of our cards in Europe. Our EU/UK cards will stop working today. All customers will receive 100% credit back to their crypto wallets within 48 hours. Were moving the card program to a new vendor, Marszalek tweeted following the news.

The latest on this saga for Crypto.com is that the FCA, the U.K. watchdog, has allowed Wirecard Card Solutions, a Newcastle-based subsidiary of troubled German company Wirecard AG, to resume regulated activity meaning that the cards from Crypto.com have been reactivated in the UK and Europe.

These kinds of events, while mostly a one-off and rare, do represent the other issues that crypto faces in trying to enter the mainstream. Payment systems are usually taken as impenetrable and as a given, but there are hidden dangers that can hold back the advancement of this space.

That being said, the future of crypto seems laid out, and on top of that, its future as a payments system is becoming more and more probable.

There are certainly tangible changes in the crypto space when it comes to payments, and how these payments will be enacted and rolled out. But there is also a long way to go. However, as Marszalek explains, the digital asset bridge has already been built by cards.

By 2030, every single person on the planet will hold digital assets one way or another. Our mission is simply to accelerate the worlds transition to cryptocurrency. Familiar form factors, like a card, play a very important role in educating main street users.

Still, Hughes explained that there are still a number of things that need to be overcome in the crypto space for payments to be normalised with these assets.

We strongly believe that for digital currencies to become trusted payment instruments for consumers or businesses, it is essential that they offer stability, regulatory compliance and consumer protections, she added.

Read more:
Bitcoin As A Payment System Crypto Cards And The Rocky Road They Travel - Forbes