Danny Nelson
267 posts
Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein pooh-poohed bitcoin’s “store of value” and “medium of exchange” propositions on CNBC Monday, stressing that if the cryptocurrency ever grew to a substantial size the regulators would likely move to shut it down. Source link
Ark Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood said she doubts U.S. regulators will green-light a bitcoin exchange-traded fund before the original cryptocurrency’s market cap hits $2 trillion. “The flood of demand has to be satisfied so it’s going to have to get well over a trillion dollars – $2 trillion, I think, before the [U.S Securities and Exchange Commission] will feel comfortable about” a bitcoin ETF, Wood […]
Hawaii is letting more companies play in its no-license-necessary digital currency sandbox. The state reopened applications for Digital Currency Innovation Lab (DCIL) hopefuls on Monday, raising the possibility that yet more crypto exchanges and service providers could soon do business in the historically restrictive-to-crypto islands. State law requires crypto companies maintain cash reserves equivalent to their digital currency holdings, an unreachable bar for even the largest […]
ARK Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood said she believes more companies will load their balance sheets up with bitcoin. In a Saturday interview with Yahoo Finance, the exchange traded fund (ETF) magnate and outspoken bitcoin advocate said large companies have asked her if they should follow Square. Inc’s lead. Square is one of the few public companies to invest in bitcoin as an inflation hedging strategy. […]
Cryptocurrency mining company Marathon Patent Group bought $150 million in bitcoin for around $31,100 apiece during the crypto asset’s recent price rout. The Nasdaq-listed firm said Monday it purchased the bitcoins through institutional bitcoin shop NYDIG. Marathon is the latest publicly traded company to swap a cash treasury for bitcoin, and, with 4,812.66 BTC now on the books, one of the largest by sheer investment size. […]
Stock-picking personality Jim Cramer recommended the unknown Maryland-based winner of Wednesday’s $731 million Powerball jackpot allocate 5% of his or her newfound fortune in bitcoin. “You know what, if you won the lottery – Yes, I’m gonna say it: 5% in bitcoin,” Cramer said Thursday night on his Mad Money program. His investment advice, of course, came with a few caveats: Don’t buy the bitcoin all […]
The U.S. government’s top investments watchdog flagged a series of unregistered cryptocurrency companies for apparently duping mostly international investors with false corporate information. Of the 28 suspect investment firms the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) called out Thursday, CoinDesk found eight that appear to target would-be cryptocurrency investors. Some purport to be trusted newcomer trading hubs; others peddle their services to retirees. One even fashions […]
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $7.81 trillion under management, appears to have granted at least two of its funds the ability to invest in bitcoin futures. Prospectus documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday indicate that BlackRock Global Allocation Fund Inc. and BlackRock Funds V are at least eyeing bitcoin. They both include the world’s oldest cryptocurrency on their lists of […]
Adult entertainment website Pornhub, which last month was booted off mainstream payment networks, is now accepting payment in a cryptocurrency others are shunning: XRP. Along with XRP the massive video site began taking payments in USDC stablecoins sometime in the past month, according to The Block. Also being accepted for payment now are dogecoin (DOGE) and binance coin (BNB), bringing the total number of cryptocurrencies accepted […]
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced it’s buying blockchain infrastructure company Bison Trails. Bison Trials, which builds cross-blockchain integration tools that link disparate protocols, will become a “foundational element” of the Coinbase product suite, the top U.S. cryptocurrency exchange said in a Tuesday blog post. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Bison Trails did not immediately respond to a request for comment. This story will be updated. […]
Bitfinex expects to finish turning documents over to the Office of the New York Attorney General (NYAG) in the coming weeks, a procedural hurdle that would move the state prosecutor’s investigation of the alleged $850 million Tether cover-up one step closer to conclusion Charles Michael, the Steptoe lawyer representing defendant Bitfinex, told the court Tuesday that parent company iFinex has “produced a substantial volume [of] material” […]
Wireline is now barred from distributing the tokens it promised investors in its 2018 SAFT sale. Source link
Alt-right extremist groups and a handful of personalities linked to last week’s storming of the U.S. Capitol building received a bitcoin donation worth about $522,000 one month before the D.C. siege, according to crypto tracing firm Chainalysis. Chainalysis explained in a Thursday blog post that an unnamed French blogger sent 28.15 BTC to 22 wallets on Dec. 8. Nick Fuentes, the far-right internet personality whose livestream […]
The regulator’s stance contrasts with that of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Source link
IHS Markit will likely join the cryptocurrency index game, the company’s President of Financial Services Adam Kansler said during the financial information giant’s Wednesday earnings call. Kansler told analysts that IHS Markit already has “tactical partnerships” with crypto firms like Lukka to source cryptocurrency pricing and reference data. These data points could form the bedrock of a cryptocurrency index product although Kansler said IHS Markit currently […]
The mea culpa was mum on Coinbase’s broader troubles in keeping global trading running smoothly. Source link
Reps. Rudy and Freeland’s bill would exempt crypto miners from paying either Kentucky sales or excise tax. Source link
Gemcoin founder Steve Chen was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for defrauding tens of thousands of investors in one of the largest early cryptocurrency investment schemes. Chen, 63, admitted last February to running U.S. Fine Investment Arts (USFIA) and peddling $147 million in “gem coins” (crypto purportedly backed by gems) to over 70,000 investors from 2013 through 2015. Prosecutors have described USFIA as […]
A top gambling tech company has patented a way for bitcoiners to pay for their next digital roll of the dice with cryptocurrency. International Game Technology plc, which builds slots and other tech for casinos, has yet to reveal any plans to integrate bitcoin, bitcoin cash and ether into its tech. But its new patent awarded Tuesday covers a means for HODLER-gamblers to pay for their […]
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the U.S. Treasury Department wing tasked with monitoring potential legal violations of domestic financial laws, wants Americans to report if they have more than $10,000 in cryptocurrencies with foreign financial or virtual asset service providers. FinCEN announced its intention to amend the Bank Secrecy Act’s Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) regulations in a rulemaking notice published on New Year’s […]
Turkey will begin piloting a previously undisclosed digital currency in the second half of 2021, the country’s chief central banker Naci Ağbal told members of parliament Friday. “There is an R&D project initiated on digital money. Currently the conceptual phase of this project has been completed. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021.” Ağbal’s surprise comments place Turkey on the fast […]
Cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin has suffered what it called a “carefully planned attack.” The Russian exchange said in a web post it has “lost control of all of our servers, [backend] and nodes” and pleaded with clients to cease making deposits, trading or interacting with the exchange. “We were not able to stop our service in time,” the post said. It was not immediately clear if clients […]
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered Tierion to pay back investors in its TNT tokens after finding the data verification startup’s $25 million initial coin offering (ICO) violated securities laws. TNT holders and ICO investors who sold their tokens at a loss have 60 days to ask Tierion for what is essentially a refund – at cost, plus interest. Node operators can sell their […]
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez may try to turn his city into a hotbed for cryptocurrency innovation. Suarez tweeted Thursday that he is “absolutely exploring” making Miami, the seventh-largest city in the U.S., home to the country’s first crypto-centric municipal government, seemingly endorsing concepts from tokenization to on-chain voting. He tagged new city resident Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital and a crypto Twitter […]
Supermarket kiosk company Coinstar has added Coinme bitcoin ATM functionality to 5,000 change-sorting machines across the U.S. The service is now available in nearly 25% of Coinstar’s total kiosk fleet and in 40 U.S. states, according to figures provided by Neil Bergquist, chief executive of Coinme. Coinstar change-counting machines are located in supermarkets, gas stations and convenience stores around the country. “There is a Coinstar kiosk […]
MicroStrategy announced Friday it raised $650 million, up from a recently boosted $550 million, in a convertible senior note sale designed to allow the business intelligence company to buy more bitcoin. The company estimates $634.9 million of that sum – the net proceeds – will be available for bitcoin allocations in accordance with its treasury reserve policy. The amount of the offering was boosted to $650 […]
Digital asset custodian Aegis Custody has received the South Dakota Division of Banking’s blessing to start forming a trust company in the state. The full-service digital asset shop must clear a series of minor regulatory hurdles before it can secure the trust charter necessary to do business, President Michael McCarty said. He said the process would likely wrap up in weeks. Once it does, Aegis will […]
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. is jumping into the institutional bitcoin game with a $100 million investment in bitcoin and a $5 million equity stake in NYDIG. The twin plays – both revealed in a Thursday press release – give MassMutual direct exposure to the cryptocurrency’s price swings and signal it’s betting that other big fish will follow suit. NYDIG is one of the fastest-growing institutional crypto […]
Enforcement Director Stephanie Avakian led SEC investigations during the heart of its ICO crackdown. Source link