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Cryptocurrency trading strategies and updates

A non-bailable arrest warrant issued against Waqar Zaka in an alleged Rs 86 million cryptocurrency scam. The ex host and social media influencer is currently on the run
 
Bitcoin rose on Saturday above $20,000 for the first time in over two months.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, rose 4.6 per cent to $20,853 at 01:01 GMT on Saturday, adding $922 to its previous close.

The cryptocurrency is up 26.4pc from the year’s low of $16,496 on January 1.

Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, rose 5.91pc to $1,536.9 on Saturday, adding $85.90 to its previous close.

Dawn
 
FTX: Collapsed crypto exchange says $415m was hacked

Collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX says that around $415m (£338m) of crypto has been stolen by hackers.

About $323m was hacked from its international exchange and $90m from its US platform since the firm filed for bankruptcy, FTX's CEO says.

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of stealing billions of dollars from FTX users to pay debts at his other firm, Alameda Research.

Mr Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges.

Last week the company told a bankruptcy judge in Delaware that it had recovered more than $5bn in assets.

On Tuesday FTX provided further details, saying that it had recovered $1.7bn in cash, $3.5bn in so-called liquid cryptocurrency and $300m in liquid securities.

In finance the term "liquid" means that an asset can be easily converted into cash without affecting its value.

The firm also said that it had identified significant shortfalls at both its international and US exchanges.

However, it did not give an estimate of total liabilities.

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64313624
 
WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department will "announce a major, international cryptocurrency enforcement action" on Wednesday, it said in a statement, adding the U.S. Treasury Department will also make an announcement.

"The U.S. Department of the Treasury will also announce an action in this space," the statement said.

U.S. officials, including Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco and Deputy U.S. Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo, will deliver remarks at 12 p.m. (1700 GMT) in Washington, according to the statement.
 
Crypto giant Genesis files for bankruptcy, after FTX collapse
Cryptocurrency lender’s bankruptcy is the latest blow to the sector following the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried.

Genesis, one of the biggest cryptocurrency lenders, has filed for bankruptcy in the United States, becoming the latest casualty of the global crypto meltdown.

Genesis Global Capital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late on Thursday in New York, with a court filing estimating the lenders’ assets and liabilities to both be in the range of $1bn-$10bn.

Parent group Genesis Global Holdco and lending unit Genesis Asia Pacific also filed for bankruptcy protection.

“Genesis has taken strategic actions to achieve a global resolution to maximize value for all clients and stakeholders and strengthen its business for the future,” the company said in a statement.

Genesis added that its subsidiaries involved in the derivatives, spot trading and custody businesses, as well as its brokerage arm Genesis Global Trading, were not included in the filing and would continue operations.

...
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2...nesis-files-for-bankruptcy-after-ftx-collapse
 
North Korea behind $100m crypto theft, FBI says
California-based Harmony said in June it had been the target of a cyberattack that stole $100m worth of digital assets.

North Korean hackers were behind the theft of $100m worth of digital assets from a US crypto firm last year, according to United States law enforcement.

The North Korean hacking groups Lazarus Group and APT38 carried out the cyber heist on crypto firm Harmony last June, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said in a statement on Monday.

North Korean cyber actors earlier this month used privacy protocol Railgun to launder more than $60m worth of Ethereum stolen during the heist, a portion of which was sent to several virtual asset service providers and converted to Bitcoin, the FBI said.

Harmony, which has its headquarters in California, announced in June that hackers had stolen $100m in digital coins from Horizon bridge, a so-called blockchain bridge used to move cryptocurrencies between different blockchain networks.

...
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/1/24/north-korea-behind-100m-crypto-theft-fbi-says
 
SalimBhai said:
Like what
Click to expand...

With the issues of circle depeg I would let things play out next week first.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/digita...-dogecoin-polygon-and-solana/?sh=7d6fb2a75042

Considering BTC halving is early next year I am accumulating under 20k and keeping enough cash in case we get a black swan event. I truly believe this is a year for buying with a view to sell in 2024-25. Following this strategy I think it's a very good multi-year investment.

As for altcoins I can recommend a few and some crypto related stocks?

I expect by 2024-25 we see exponentional growth in the NFT space. Research and invest wisely and the chances of great returns are very high.
 
Thousands may have lost out to crypto trading app

Thousands of people are believed to have lost their savings after investing in a cryptocurrency trading app called iEarn Bot.

Experts who have investigated the company say it could be one of the largest crypto scandals to date.

Trading in cryptocurrencies has become popular, with people often promised large rewards over short periods.

But law enforcement agencies warn of a growing number of scams and recommend investors conduct "due diligence".

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64939146
 
Police in Montenegro say they have arrested a man who they believe is the fugitive crypto mogul Do Kwon.

He is wanted in connection with the collapse of his company Terraform, which is estimated to have cost investors more than $40bn (£32.5bn).

South Korea is seeking him, and he has also been charged by US officials for "orchestrating multibillion-dollar crypto asset securities fraud".

Mr Kwon has previously denied he is in hiding but never revealed his location.

News of the arrest was made by Montenegro's interior minister, Filip Adzic, who tweeted that "one of the world's most wanted fugitives" had been detained at Podgorica's airport.

Mr Adzig added that the suspect was accused of travelling under a false name with fake documents. Authorities are still waiting for official confirmation of the man's identity, he said.

Mr Kwon's Singapore-based company Terraform, along with its cryptocurrencies, collapsed spectacularly in May 2022.

The value of its Terra Luna and TerraUSD tokens fell, plummeting to near zero and triggering a sell-off in major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether.

"I am heartbroken about the pain my invention has brought on all of you," Mr Kwon said at the time.

BBC
 
Dogecoin Falls 9% After Twitter Drops Doge Meme From Home Button
Since Monday, Twitter users have seen a cartoon of the Shiba-Inu that's the visual representation of the Doge meme on the upper left corner of the social media service's home page.

Dogecoin fell as much as 9% as some Twitter users began to see their home buttons on the social media platform revert back to its iconic blue-bird logo after a few days of being replaced by the dog meme associated with the cryptocurrency.
Since Monday, Twitter users have seen a cartoon of the Shiba-Inu that's the visual representation of the Doge meme on the upper left corner of the social media service's home page.

Twitter owner Elon Musk has long been a supporter of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created as a joke in 2013, with the currency accepted as payment for merchandise at Tesla Inc., another company he heads.

Twitter didn't respond to a Bloomberg question about the restoration of its bird logo.

Dogecoin fell to as low as 8.4 cents, compared to the high of 10.5 cents it reached on Monday after Twitter made the logo change.

NDTV
 
Elon Musk probably had a laugh to himself over the little doge pump he generated. Ironically when he was facing a lawsuit over speculating on dogecoin prices lmao.
 
Knew that he would dump it after pumping it. He can manipulate the dogecoin market pretty easily and whenever he wants to. :inti
 
I have a question regarding investing in crypto. If I invest certain amount of money in crypto through a financial institution and sell some and make some profit , how will I calculate tax ? Will the institution provide me with details at the end of financial year?
 
Bitcoin is terrible for the environment – can it ever go green?
Cryptocurrency mining uses huge amounts of energy, but activists are urging for a change in its code to reduce its environmental impact

On the corner of New York’s Park Avenue and 52nd Street, curious onlookers recently stopped in front of a giant green skull sitting in the bed of a truck parked outside the office of Fidelity Investments, the global financial management company.

The “Skull of Satoshi”, named after the pseudonymous bitcoin developer Satoshi Nakamoto, is composed almost entirely of computer circuit boards and fitted with tall smokestacks usually found atop coal power plants.

The artifact is a project of artist Benjamin Von Wong and is a reference to the massive amounts of carbon emitted from mining the cryptocurrency bitcoin, an endeavor Fidelity is now pursuing.

Bitcoin is chiefly known as a wild investment vehicle that – along with many other cryptocurrencies – can seemingly make or lose fortunes overnight in a market where values go up and down quickly and by large margins.

But what worries environmentalists and others is the huge amount of electricity used in generating bitcoin and other such currencies – energy that often traces back to fossil fuels and so has a corresponding impact on the climate crisis.

As major financial brands speculate in the cryptocurrency world, environmental campaigners want to make sure they know that they are not just taking a financial gamble; there is also an environmental risk.

Some are hoping that they can persuade those institutions to try to lessen the impact of crypto-mining. “It’s a big step for a financial institution like Fidelity to launch their own crypto platform. So now more than ever, we need their help,” said Rolf Skar, campaign director at Greenpeace USA, a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization.

It is a complex situation. But here is a guide to the key issues.

What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is a type of cryptocurrency, a decentralized form of currency that is strictly digital rather than physical – unlike dollars, pounds or euros. It is managed and traded on a public, open ledger known as a “blockchain” that records all bitcoin transactions. Though not commonly done, bitcoin can be used to buy material goods.

How does bitcoin cause environmental damage?
Because cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are not centralized, there is no singular authority or body to verify transactions. Instead, participants in the bitcoin network “mine”, or compete to solve cryptographic puzzles to generate more of the currency. Whoever solves the puzzle the fastest gets to verify transactions for the chance to add the newest batch of them to the blockchain.

The winner is financially rewarded with new cryptocurrency in this process, referred to as “proof of work” (Pow) – the culprit for greenhouse gas emissions.

The Pow consensus algorithm used to verify transactions requires large amounts of electricity which is often produced by burning fossil fuels, emitting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.

A 2022 report, titled Revisiting Bitcoin’s Carbon Footprint, conducted by climate and economics researchers across Europe estimates that “Bitcoin mining may be responsible for 65.4 megatonnes of CO2 per year … which is comparable to country-level emissions in Greece (56.6 megatonnes in 2019).”

What do environmental groups want?
There is a recent push by some environmentalists to reduce the environmental impact of bitcoin by changing the way it is produced.

So groups like Greenpeace are calling out Fidelity and other financial management and payment process companies that have ventured into bitcoin mining. Hence the recent targeting of Fidelity. Skar said that although Fidelity responded to Greenpeace when the group reached out, the response was lackluster.

“[Fidelity] seem not to want to talk about the issue. They declined [our request to speak] so far, but it’s an invitation for them and others to step up and put resources towards solutions to deal with the problem of bitcoin mining globally. We think it can be done,” Skar said.

How could ‘changing the code’ mitigate environmental damage?
The solution, Greenpeace argues, is simple: change the computer code that produces bitcoin in order to consume less electricity and reduce its carbon footprint.

This code is open-source, meaning it is publicly accessible to anyone who wants to see or use it.

The Guardian
 
Question About Crypto

I use wealthsimple account for investing . I only use it to invest in stocks in Tax saving account.

My question is that if I use it to invest in crypto in wealthsimple or other such platforms how will be tax calculated on the capital gains?

Someone told me that I would be provided with a Tax slip showing my total gains at the end of financial year. Is that true?
 
Muhammed Bilal used to have to wait his turn outside a money transfer office in the scorching heat of Dubai to send home $1,000 to his wife and parents in Pakistan each month, at a cost of about $7 per transfer.

He has since switched to an app that allows him to send money instantly with no transfer fees, joining a growing number of migrants in the United Arab Emirates using cryptocurrencies and blockchain services to send remittances quickly and cheaply.

For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

“Now, I don’t need to wait in queues,” said Bilal, a 27-year-old customer service agent.

“I do it at home from my mobile phone and the money is sent within seconds.”

The Middle East and North Africa had the fastest-growing crypto market in the world last year, according to blockchain data platform Chainalysis, with crypto transfers into the region rising by 48 percent to $566 billion in the year to June.

The use of crypto for remittances and savings, as well as increasingly permissive regulations are helping to drive growth in the region, it added.

The UAE plans to make Dubai “the first city fully powered by blockchain,” and has developed laws and regulatory systems around digital assets as it pushes to become a hub for the crypto industry.

Antti Arponen, CEO of Dubai-based fintech firm Pyypl, said five million people had downloaded the app since its launch in 2017.

“Eighty percent of our users are migrants and the numbers have been growing exponentially in the past few years,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Migrant workers said crypto offered a better deal than traditional banking and money transfer services, despite a crash in the market last year that left many holders of digital coins nursing heavy losses.

“With crypto, there are almost zero fees — easy, instant and safe,” said Gerard Dingal, a 30-year-old pastry chef, who has been using crypto and Pyypl to send money to his mother and sister in the Philippines.

But such platforms expose users to the risk of scams and highly volatile currencies, said Pete Howson, a crypto expert and assistant professor in international development at Northumbria University, in the British city of Newcastle.

“Users’ funds aren’t insured when they use these sorts of platforms (crypto and blockchain-based apps), like they are with a bank,” he said.

Migrants seek value
Nearly 90 percent of the UAE’s 9.3-million population are expatriates, according to a report by the UN Capital Development Fund last year, many from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Egypt.

They account for billions of dollars in remittances to their home countries.

Migrants also often use cash transfer services because they are cheaper, said Mohammad Jalal Uddin Sikder, a researcher in labor migration and a coordinator at the Center for Migration Studies in Bangladesh.

“Migrants carefully consider every cent. Going to the bank and sending any form of remittances entails high fees,” he said.

Money transfer services in the UAE typically charge a flat fee of AED 25 per transaction.

But cryptocurrencies, which allow “peer-to-peer” transfers between users online without any intermediaries such as banks or financial authorities, can be better value still.

Migrants can buy crypto using credit cards or crypto exchange offices and then transfer it instantly to their families’ digital wallets. Their relatives will then have to convert the crypto to the local currency.

Transfer costs usually range from free to 0.5 percent depending on the app used and the country coins are being sent to. There is also typically a charge for conversion in or out of local currencies, though some services charge as little as one cent.

Volatile market

As crypto services in the Gulf cash in, banks and other financial institutions are also trying to harness tech developments to make it easier and cheaper for migrant workers to send remittances home.

The UAE’s central bank has announced a “Digital Dirham” currency which it says will help ease cross-border payments and improve financial inclusion.

In March, it signed an agreement with India’s reserve bank to pilot a shared infrastructure to facilitate cross-border transactions of national digital currencies for remittances and trade.

The Foreign Exchange and Remittance Group, a UAE industry body for the money transfer industry, said in its 2022 annual report that its members are also increasingly offering mobile and digital payments in response to demand.

But some migrants who held cash in crypto say they are looking for less risky options.

Ahmed Abdel Fattah, an Egyptian migrant in the UAE, used to invest and send remittances in crypto, but he started to lose faith in digital assets after the 2022 market crash.

“I lost more than half of my investments,” said Abdel Fattah, a driver.

“It is a very volatile market. That is why I stopped investing in crypto and I am now thinking about other options.”

Howson said that take-up of cryptocurrencies and blockchain services will be limited where better, safer options exist.

“Crypto works for migrants, until it doesn’t,” he said.

“Blockchains are useful when you don’t trust political and financial institutions ... (but) no one wants to be held accountable when things go wrong.”

https://english.alarabiya.net/News/...xpats-turn-to-crypto-to-send-remittances-home
 
Sam Bankman-Fried, who once ran one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, has been found guilty of fraud and money laundering at the end of a month-long trial in New York.

The jury gave its verdict after just four and a half hours of deliberations.

It concludes a stunning fall from grace for the 31-year-old former billionaire and one of the most public faces of the crypto industry.

Bankman-Fried was arrested last year after his firm, FTX, went bankrupt.

He now faces decades in prison. His sentencing has been set for 28 March next year.

"Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history - a multibillion-dollar scheme designed to make him the king of crypto," US attorney Damian Williams said in a statement after the verdict.

"This case has always been about lying, cheating and stealing, and we have no patience for it," he added.

Prosecutors had accused Bankman-Fried of lying to investors and lenders and stealing billions of dollars from cryptocurrency exchange FTX, helping to precipitate its collapse. They charged him with seven counts of fraud and money laundering.

He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, maintaining that, while he had made mistakes, he had acted in good faith.

After the verdict Bankman-Fried's lawyer Mark Cohen said: "We respect the jury's decision. But we are very disappointed with the result.

"Mr Bankman-Fried maintains his innocence and will continue to vigorously fight the charges against him," he added.

A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment on whether he planned to appeal against the verdict.

Three of his former close friends and colleagues, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against him in hopes of reducing their own sentences.

They are to be sentenced at a later date.

"The government won this case by putting a lot of pressure on cooperators, getting deals with them very early on and trying this case in a very streamlined way," said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti.

"Instead of overcomplicating the case, turning it into some complicated crypto case, they tried it as a garden variety fraud."

The prosecution presented evidence that Bankman-Fried's crypto trading firm Alameda Research received deposits on behalf of FTX customers from the early days of the exchange, when traditional banks were unwilling to let it open an account.

Instead of safeguarding those funds, as Bankman-Fried repeatedly pledged to do in public, he spent the money to repay Alameda lenders, buy property and make investments and political donations.

BBC
 
Bitcoin Rose above 37k$. It was for a short while, but the trend of higher highs has started. I guess patience us the key for some of us who jumped in when it was sub 21k
 
OMB said:
Bitcoin Rose above 37k$. It was for a short while, but the trend of higher highs has started. I guess patience us the key for some of us who jumped in when it was sub 21k
Click to expand...
Sell and wait for it drop. Use the profits to invest. Nothing to lose
 
Bewal Express said:
Sell and wait for it drop. Use the profits to invest. Nothing to lose
Click to expand...
Yeah did that for half the bag.
I am doing well with BTc and ETH, it’s the Altcoins that not working for me, almost 50% negative for alts. Waiting for fair price
 
OMB said:
Yeah did that for half the bag.
I am doing well with BTc and ETH, it’s the Altcoins that not working for me, almost 50% negative for alts. Waiting for fair price
Click to expand...
Glad you are. I lost over £9k. My worst investment decision ever.
 
Binance's Zhao to plead guilty, step down to settle US illicit finance probe

Binance chief Changpeng Zhao will step down and plead guilty to breaking criminal U.S. anti-money laundering laws as part of a $4 billion settlement resolving a years-long probe into the world's largest crypto exchange, prosecutors said on Tuesday.

The deal with the Justice Department, detailed in court filings, is part of a large settlement between the firm and other U.S. agencies, including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Treasury Department, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The agreement will resolve criminal charges for conducting an unlicensed money transmitter business, conspiracy and breaching sanctions regulations, the filing said.

The company will pay $1.81 billion within 15 months, and a further $2.51 billion forfeiture as part of the deal with the Justice Department, prosecutors said. Zhao will personally pay $50 million.

Zhao's plea agreement also bars him from all involvement with Binance. His plea hearing was scheduled for 10:45 a.m. Pacific Time (1:45 p.m. ET) in Seattle.




www.reuters.com

Binance's Zhao to plead guilty, step down to settle US illicit finance probe

Binance chief Changpeng Zhao will step down and plead guilty to breaking criminal U.S. anti-money laundering laws as part of a $4 billion settlement resolving a years-long probe into the world's largest crypto exchange, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
 
Bitcoin tops $41,000 and hits 19-month high on ETF hopes, bets on Fed cuts

Bitcoin built on its recent rally and hit its highest level in more than a year on Monday, bolstered by anticipation of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund approval and bets on U.S. interest rate cuts.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency surged more than 5% on Monday to a 19-month high, and was trading at $41,707 as of 10:00 am ET after briefly topping $42,000 earlier in the day, based on Coin Metrics data. This is the first time since April 2022 that bitcoin has breached the $40,000 level, according to LSEG. Bitcoin is now up more than 145% from the start of the year.

This comes after scandals rocked the market including the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November last year. Last month, FTX founder Bankman-Fried was found guilty of all seven criminal charges brought against him related to the collapse of his crypto empire.

“Now that $40,000 has been revisited for the first time in almost 19 months, $48,000 and $52,000 look to be the next significant lines in the sand,” said Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of digital asset company Nexo.




www.cnbc.com

Bitcoin tops $41,000 and hits 19-month high on ETF hopes, bets on Fed cuts

Bitcoin surged more than 5% on Monday to a 19-month high, and traded as high as $41,337 in the last 24 hours, based on Coin Metrics data.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com
 
Sam Bankman-Fried: Convicted 'Crypto King' will not face second trial

Sam Bankman-Fried, who once ran one of the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchanges and is facing decades in jail, will not face another trial, US prosecutors say.

The 31-year-old was found guilty of fraud and money laundering last month.

Prosecutors said the "strong public interest" in a resolution of their case against the former billionaire outweighed benefits of a second trial.

He had faced six charges that had been separated from his first trial.

These included campaign finance violations, conspiracy to commit bribery, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

His sentencing has been set for 28 March.

In a letter filed in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said that his sentencing will likely include orders of forfeiture and restitution for the victims of his crimes.

Bankman-Fried's conviction in New York on 2 November concluded a stunning fall from grace for the former billionaire, once known as the "King of Crypto".

He was arrested last year after his firm, FTX, went bankrupt.

FTX was once valued at $32bn (£26bn), but when it went bankrupt in November last year $8bn in customer funds was missing.

The jury found him guilty of lying to investors and lenders and stealing billions of dollars from FTX, helping to precipitate its collapse. He was charged with seven counts of fraud and money laundering.

The prosecution presented evidence that Bankman-Fried's crypto trading firm Alameda Research received deposits on behalf of FTX customers from the early days of the exchange, when traditional banks were unwilling to let it open an account.

Instead of safeguarding those funds, as Bankman-Fried repeatedly pledged to do in public, he used the money to repay Alameda lenders, buy property and make investments and political donations.

He had pleaded not guilty to all the charges, maintaining that, while he had made mistakes, he had acted in good faith.

Five of the charges Bankman-Fried was found guilty of carry a maximum prison term of 20 years, with a five-year maximum on the other two charges.

That creates a potential maximum sentence of 110 years. Although it is unlikely the judge will actually impose that, Bankman-Fried is expected to face a sentence lasting decades.

Three of his former close friends and colleagues, including his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against him in hopes of reducing their own sentences.

They are to be sentenced at a later date.
​
SOURCE: BBC
 
Bewal Express said:
Yes. But my hopes have disappeared and I don't think ICP will ever recover. I got scammed because I was greedy.
Click to expand...

In crypto you've got to take the rough with the smooth.

in the months ahead we are heading in to a Bull run, there's a strong possibility you could recover your loses.
 
FearlessRoar said:
Cryptocurrency is real? how does it work? How can one invest and make a profit?
Click to expand...
It's a scam. I fell for it and quite rightly got punished. It's a ponzi scheme and as long as there are greedy people like me, it will continue. I am only bitter because I lost a lot of money. Otherwise I, too would be singing its praises
 
Bewal Express said:
It's a scam. I fell for it and quite rightly got punished. It's a ponzi scheme and as long as there are greedy people like me, it will continue. I am only bitter because I lost a lot of money. Otherwise I, too would be singing its praises
Click to expand...

Personally, I think both Bitcoin and Etherium are solid investments. We will have a correction around 45-48k with Bitcoin, bringing it back down to possibly 31-35k and a chance for investors to get in.

THIS IS NO FINANCIAL OR INVESTING ADVICE. JUST A OPINION
 
US SEC approves bitcoin ETFs in watershed for crypto market

The U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday approved the first U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin, its Chair Gary Gensler said, in a watershed for the world's largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 applications, including from BlackRock (BLK.N), Ark Investments/21Shares (ABTC.S), Fidelity, Invesco (IVZ.N) and VanEck, among others, according to a notice on its website. Some products are expected to begin trading as early as Thursday, kicking off a fierce competition for market share.

The products - a decade in the making - are a game-changer for bitcoin, offering institutional and retail investors exposure to the world's largest cryptocurrency without directly holding it, and a major boost for a crypto industry beset by a string of scandals.

Standard Chartered analysts this week said the ETFs could draw $50 billion to $100 billion this year alone, potentially driving the price of bitcoin as high as $100,000. Other analysts have said inflows will be closer to $55 billion over five years.

"It's a huge positive for the institutionalization of bitcoin as an asset class," said Andrew Bond, managing director and senior fintech analyst at Rosenblatt Securities. "The ETF approval will further legitimize bitcoin."

Bitcoin was last up 3% at $47,300. The cryptocurrency has soared more than 70% in recent months on anticipation of an ETF, and hit its highest level since March 2022 earlier in the week.



 
US bitcoin ETFs see $4.6 billion in volume in first day of trading

U.S.-listed bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw $4.6 billion worth of shares trade hands as of Thursday afternoon, according to LSEG data, as investors jumped into the landmark products approved by the U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday.

The products mark a watershed moment for the cryptocurrency industry that will test whether digital assets - still viewed by many professionals as risky - can gain broader acceptance as an investment.

Eleven spot bitcoin ETFs - including BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT.O), Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC.P), and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB.Z), among others - began trading Thursday morning, kicking off a fierce competition for market share.

Grayscale, BlackRock and Fidelity dominated trading volumes, the LSEG data showed.



 
Big fall in bitcoin today, about 8%. Probably a 'buy the rumour & sell the news' event after the ETF was created.
 

Bitcoin worth £1.4bn seized after ex-takeaway worker tried to buy £23m mansion, court hears​

Bitcoin worth more than £1.4bn was seized by police after a former Chinese takeaway worker tried to buy a £23.5m Hampstead mansion, a court has heard.

Jian Wen, 42, is alleged to have acted as a "front person" to help launder some of the profits of a £5bn investment fraud carried out in China by Zhimin Qian between 2014 and 2017.

Qian bought cryptocurrency to get the proceeds out of the country before coming to the UK using the false identity Yadi Zhang on a St Kitts and Nevis passport, a jury was told.

She fled the UK and is still at large after police raided the six-bedroom house they rented for more than £17,000 a month near Hampstead Heath in northwest London, as well as a safety deposit box.

Officers seized devices containing digital wallets holding more than 61,000 Bitcoin, valued at more than £1.4bn when police gained access in the summer of 2021.

Wen, who is not said to have been involved in the underlying fraud or had access to all of the Bitcoin, is on trial at Southwark Crown Court, where she denies three counts of money laundering between October 2017 and January 2022.

Prosecutor Gillian Jones KC said Wen doesn't dispute dealing with the Bitcoin, but claims she was Zhang's carer and the jury will have to decide whether she knew or suspected it was the proceeds of crime.

She said that when Zhang - who used aliases including Rose, Emma, and Hua Hua - flew into London in 2017, she needed to convert the cryptocurrency back into cash or "property, jewellery or other high-value items".

Before meeting Zhang, Wen - a Chinese national who moved to the UK in 2007 and became a British citizen in 2018 - had worked in a Chinese takeaway in southeast London and lived in room underneath the restaurant.

Wen called Zhang her "boss" and they claimed to be involved in an international jewellery business, trading in diamonds and antiques in countries including Japan, Thailand and China, the prosecutor said.

The pair travelled extensively throughout Europe, selling Bitcoin and buying fine jewellery, including watches worth around £49,300 and £69,900 from Van Cleef & Arpels in Switzerland.

The court heard they discussed buying properties in Zurich before Wen, who remained in the UK while Zhang rented a property in Sweden, tried to buy real estate in London.

Ms Jones said the properties included a seven-bedroom Hampstead mansion with a swimming pool, which was on the market for £23.5m, and a £12.5m eight-bedroom home with a cinema and gym.

But none of the purchases went ahead because the source of the Bitcoin couldn't be explained, the jury was told.

The prosecutor said Wen initially claimed the cryptocurrency had been mined, then said it was a "love present", drawing up a deed of gift stating she had been given 3,000 Bitcoin, then worth £15m, by Zhang.

"That is quite a pay cheque," the prosecutor told jurors. "You are going to have to look carefully at the circumstances of that purported gift.

"A gesture by a very generous benefactor pleased with the care and assistance provided, or a device or sham to create an air of legitimacy as to the source of funds when Miss Wen attempted to purchase high value property on behalf of Miss Zhang."

The trial continues.

Source: SKY
 
Bitcoin spiked above $50,000 on Tuesday for the first time in more than two years as investors grow optimistic that US approval of broader trading in the unit will ramp up demand.
 
For me, investing in crypto is a big gamble. There is certainly a possibility of earning a lot of money but there is also a chance of losing your money.
 
hassan918 said:
Bitcoin spiked above $50,000 on Tuesday for the first time in more than two years as investors grow optimistic that US approval of broader trading in the unit will ramp up demand.
Click to expand...
I wish ICP also spikes so I can get my money back. Break even is close to $100. Thinking about it, I might as well bet on horse with no legs winning the grand national
 
The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to temporarily suspend its mandatory survey of cryptocurrency miner energy use following a lawsuit by prominent miner Riot Blockchain and an industry group, according to a notice filed on Friday with the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas Waco Division.

The DOE's statistical arm, the Energy Information Administration, will halt its survey and sequester the data received after it began collecting details from bitcoin miners early this month, the notice said.



Reuters
 
Bitcoin hits $60,000 as rally snowballs

Bitcoin hit $60,000 on Wednesday for the first time in more than two years, as a surge of capital into new U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded products fuelled a rally that has reached 42% this month, on track for its largest monthly gain since December 2020.

Bitcoin was last up 8% at $61,272, its highest since November 2021, when it hit a record just below $70,000. It was also heading for its largest weekly gain in a year, up 18.5% since Feb. 21.

Traders have poured into bitcoin ahead of April's halving event - a process designed to slow the release of the cryptocurrency. In addition, the prospect of the Federal Reserve delivering a series of rate cuts this year has fed investor appetite for higher-yielding or more volatile assets.

"Bitcoin is being driven by the support of consistent inflows into the new spot ETFs and outlook for April's halving event and June's Fed interest rate cuts," said Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at retail investment platform eToro.

Coinbase Global , the largest U.S. crypto exchange, said on Wednesday it was investigating an issue causing some users to see zero balance across their accounts. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said, opens new tab in a separate post on X that the crypto exchange was dealing with a large surge in traffic. read more

The value of all the bitcoin in circulation has topped $2 trillion this month for the first time in two years, according to crypto platform CoinGecko, while the price of the token itself has doubled in just four months.

The bigger bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have seen a definite pickup in interest this week.

The three most popular, run by Grayscale , Fidelity and BlackRock (IBIT.O), opens new tab, have seen trading volumes surge.

On Monday and Tuesday, around 110 million shares in the biggest three changed hands, about 51% of the 215 million shares traded in the market's most valuable companies - Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab, according to LSEG data.

Three weeks ago, this percentage was closer to 15%.

"Essentially, we're seeing the ETF effect ahead of schedule ... We think it's reflective of advisors getting out there very quickly to start selling the ETFs to clients," said Joseph Edwards, head of research at Enigma Securities.

LSEG data showed flows into the 10 largest spot bitcoin ETFs brought in $420 million on Tuesday alone, the most in almost two weeks.

"If $60,000 doesn’t whet the appetite, consider that 70% of bitcoin supply has remained unmoved for a year, and the little that’s left is being hoovered up by the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity, just as rewards for miners are about to be slashed in half," said the cofounder of the Nexo crypto exchange, Antoni Trenchev.

Crypto investor and software firm MicroStrategy (MSTR.O), opens new tab this week disclosed it had recently bought about 3,000 bitcoin for $155 million, while social media platform Reddit said it had bought small amounts of bitcoin and ether.

Meanwhile, the world's second biggest crypto currency, ether, , which underpins the ethereum blockchain network, rose 3.2% to $3,353, having hit another two-year high earlier in the day. Its price has risen 47% in February.

Some investors are hoping U.S. regulators will approve applications for ETFs based on spot ether.

Enigma Securities' Edwards said the rise felt reasonably well supported.

"There certainly isn't a manic feeling to who's buying and why - ether gaining against the field also speaks to a more measured environment - but there's at least a little FOMO (fear of missing out) going on right now."

REUTERS
 
People still having interest in this thing?

--------------------------

Bitcoin bursts above $68,000, record high comes into view

Bitcoin rallied to a two-year high on Monday, breaking above $68,000 as a wave of money carried it within striking distance of record levels.

The price hit a session high of $68,580 and was last at $68,161. Bitcoin hit a record $68,999.99 in November 2021.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value has gained 50% this year and most of the rise has come in the last few weeks when inflows into U.S.-listed bitcoin funds have surged.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved in the United States earlier this year. Their launch opened the way for new large investors and has re-ignited enthusiasm and momentum reminiscent of the run up to record levels in 2021.

"The flows are not drying up as investors feel more confident the higher price appears to go," said Markus Thielen, head of research at crypto analytics house 10x Research in Singapore.

Net flows into the 10 largest U.S. spot bitcoin funds reached $2.17 billion in the week to March 1, with more than half of that going into BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT.O), opens new tab, according to LSEG data.

Smaller rival ether has hitched a ride on speculation that it too may soon have exchange-traded funds driving inflows. It's up 50% year-to-date and by Monday was trading at two-year highs, up 2.6% on the day at $3,518.

The rally has come in tandem with records tumbling on stock indexes from Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab to the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab and with volatility gauges in equities (.VIX), opens new tab and foreign exchange (.DBCVIX), opens new tab turning lower.

"In a world where Nasdaq is making new all-time highs, crypto is going to perform well as bitcoin remains a high-volatility tech proxy and liquidity thermometer," said Brent Donnelly, trader and president at analysis firm Spectra Markets.

"We are back to a 2021-style market where everything goes up and everyone is having fun."

SOURCE: REUTERS
 
BouncerGuy said:
People still having interest in this thing?

--------------------------

Bitcoin bursts above $68,000, record high comes into view

Bitcoin rallied to a two-year high on Monday, breaking above $68,000 as a wave of money carried it within striking distance of record levels.

The price hit a session high of $68,580 and was last at $68,161. Bitcoin hit a record $68,999.99 in November 2021.

The largest cryptocurrency by market value has gained 50% this year and most of the rise has come in the last few weeks when inflows into U.S.-listed bitcoin funds have surged.

Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds were approved in the United States earlier this year. Their launch opened the way for new large investors and has re-ignited enthusiasm and momentum reminiscent of the run up to record levels in 2021.

"The flows are not drying up as investors feel more confident the higher price appears to go," said Markus Thielen, head of research at crypto analytics house 10x Research in Singapore.

Net flows into the 10 largest U.S. spot bitcoin funds reached $2.17 billion in the week to March 1, with more than half of that going into BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT.O), opens new tab, according to LSEG data.

Smaller rival ether has hitched a ride on speculation that it too may soon have exchange-traded funds driving inflows. It's up 50% year-to-date and by Monday was trading at two-year highs, up 2.6% on the day at $3,518.

The rally has come in tandem with records tumbling on stock indexes from Japan's Nikkei (.N225), opens new tab to the S&P 500 (.SPX), opens new tab and tech-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC), opens new tab and with volatility gauges in equities (.VIX), opens new tab and foreign exchange (.DBCVIX), opens new tab turning lower.

"In a world where Nasdaq is making new all-time highs, crypto is going to perform well as bitcoin remains a high-volatility tech proxy and liquidity thermometer," said Brent Donnelly, trader and president at analysis firm Spectra Markets.

"We are back to a 2021-style market where everything goes up and everyone is having fun."

SOURCE: REUTERS
Click to expand...

Who wouldn’t? Anyone who is in crypto knew bull run will start in 2024 when halving nears.
All savvy investors accumulated when price was between 20-30k and now are 2-3x up on their investment.
Sone alt coins might do 10-20x but those are more risky/gamble plays.
 
big_gamer007 said:
Who wouldn’t? Anyone who is in crypto knew bull run will start in 2024 when halving nears.
All savvy investors accumulated when price was between 20-30k and now are 2-3x up on their investment.
Sone alt coins might do 10-20x but those are more risky/gamble plays.
Click to expand...
Good for people who kept faith in Bitcoin. from a great decline to around 18-19k to 66k. People got rich.
 
The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, briefly hit a new all-time high of more than $69,000.

It surpassed the previous record set in November 2021 - though by 2022 Bitcoin's value had sunk to $16,500.

The new surge in price has been spurred by US finance giants pouring billions into buying bitcoins.

The cryptocurrency rose to around $69,200 shortly after 15:00 GMT on Tuesday, before falling back. It was trading around $62,185 by 21:00 GMT.

Bitcoin's value has spiked by more than 50% over the last month, according to cryptocurrency market data platform CoinMarketCap.


BBC
 
Cricket Warrior said:
The price of the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, briefly hit a new all-time high of more than $69,000.

It surpassed the previous record set in November 2021 - though by 2022 Bitcoin's value had sunk to $16,500.

The new surge in price has been spurred by US finance giants pouring billions into buying bitcoins.

The cryptocurrency rose to around $69,200 shortly after 15:00 GMT on Tuesday, before falling back. It was trading around $62,185 by 21:00 GMT.

Bitcoin's value has spiked by more than 50% over the last month, according to cryptocurrency market data platform CoinMarketCap.


BBC
Click to expand...
Damn! i should i have invested in it last year.
 
Also
Next big Crypto to watch out for at this moment is ALGOTECH. Its in presale phase at the moment. You can still have it at .06 cents a token. Will explode for the next 12-18 months.
 
Bitcoin briefly rallied to a record high on Friday in volatile trading, as crypto mania continued to sweep through the investment community.

The leading cryptocurrency topped the $70,000 mark for the first time, boosted by investor demand for new U.S. spot exchange-traded crypto products and expectations for global interest rates to fall.

It rose to as high as $70,105 before quickly dropping, and was last trading at $68,317.72.


Reuters
 
Bitcoin hit a record high on Monday above $71,000, as the surge in the biggest cryptocurrency showed no signs of slowing down.
 
Bitcoin topped $72,000 for the first time, advancing for a sixth straight day and taking gains this year to almost 70% on the back of massive inflows into US exchange-traded funds.

The original cryptocurrency rose as much as 5% to $72,880 on Monday, before paring the increase. Smaller tokens like Ether, Solana and Avalanche also advanced. The crypto gains came even as equities were mixed ahead of a key report on US inflation.

Source: Bloomberg
 
$DOGE up 100% in the past month, we could see insanity play out again if Elon Musk starts tweeting about Dogecoin again.
 
Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years for crypto fraud

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday for the massive fraud and conspiracy that doomed his cryptocurrency exchange and a related hedge fund.

The sentence in Manhattan federal court was significantly less than the 40 to 50 years in prison that federal prosecutors wanted for Bankman-Fried, and much more than the five to six-and-a-half years that his lawyers had suggested.

“They built something really beautiful and I threw all of that away,” Bankman-Fried, 32, said of his co-workers at FTX. “It haunts me every day.”

“It’s been excruciating to watch this all unfold,” he told Judge Lewis Kaplan. “Customers don’t deserve this level of pain.

“I was the CEO of FTX and I was responsible.”

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams, in a statement after the sentencing, said, “Samuel Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the largest financial frauds in history, stealing over $8 billion of his customers’ money.”

“His deliberate and ongoing lies demonstrated a brazen disregard for his customers’ expectations and disrespect for the rule of law, all so that he could secretly use his customers’ money to expand his own power and influence,” Williams said.

The top prosecutor said that the sentence not only will prevent Bankman-Fried from committing fraud again, but also is “an important message to others who might be tempted to engage in financial crimes that justice will be swift, and the consequences will be severe.”

Bankman-Fried’s family, in a statement, said, “We are heartbroken and will continue to fight for our son.”

Before he sentenced SBF, Kaplan said he rejected “the entirety of defendant’s argument there was no loss” at FTX, calling that claim “misleading, logically flawed and speculative.”

After Kaplan ruled on the guideline enhancement, several victims of Bankman-Fried talked about the damage to their lives from his crimes.

Bankman-Fried, who was wearing a beige jailhouse jumpsuit, looked at the victims as they talked to the judge.

A jury in November convicted Bankman-Fried of seven counts and held him responsible for the roughly $10 billion of customer deposits that went missing in 2022.

The charges included wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against lenders to sister hedge fund Alameda Research; conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors; and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are in the courtroom for the sentencing hearing.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has said Bankman-Fried was the mastermind of “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”

Jurors reached their verdict after only about three hours of deliberations. For a high-profile monthlong trial that involved nearly 20 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits, experts told CNBC they’d never seen such a speedy decision.

Bankman-Fried plans to appeal his conviction and sentence.

It was a steep and swift fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who was once hailed as a titan in the industry and grew his crypto empire — on paper — to a $32 billion valuation.

 
Disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of stealing billions of dollars from his customers.

He was the chief executive of FTX, which suddenly went bankrupt in November 2022 - leaving millions of users frozen out of their accounts and unable to make withdrawals.


SKY News
 
Pakistani influencer and cryptocurrency aficionado Waqar Zaka has demonstrated his mettle by raking in significant profits amidst the market turmoil.

Zaka, renowned for his daring live transmissions and keen interest in cryptocurrencies, seized the opportunity presented by today's volatile market conditions to secure substantial gains.

During a riveting live broadcast on YouTube, Zaka showcased his trading prowess by executing two high-stakes trades with a margin of $50,000 each, leveraging his $200,000 trading account.

Zaka managed to accrue a remarkable $25,000 profit from one trade and an impressive $28,000 from another, all within a mere 3-4 hour timeframe.

As the cryptocurrency market witnessed a sharp downturn, with Bitcoin plummeting to $66,000 and altcoins experiencing double-digit declines, Zaka's strategic manoeuvres stood out amidst the chaos.


Samaa TV
 

Former Binance CEO CZ sentenced to four months​

Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive of Binance, was sentenced on Tuesday to four months in prison after pleading guilty to violating US money-laundering laws at the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Richard Jones in Seattle, who rejected prosecutors’ request that the 47-year-old Zhaoserve a three-year term.

Once considered the most powerful person in the cryptocurrency industry, Zhao, known as “CZ,” is the second major crypto boss to be sentenced to prison.

Zhao pleaded guilty in November to one count of failing to take required anti-money-laundering measures and stepped down as Binance agreed to pay $4.3bn to settle related allegations. US officials said Zhao deliberately looked the other way as people conducted transactions that supported child sex abuse, the illegal drug trade and “terrorism”.

“I failed here,” Zhao said before US District Judge Richard A Jones issued the sentence. “I deeply regret my failure, and I am sorry.”

The three-year prison term prosecutors sought was more than twice the guideline range for the crime. If he did not receive time in custody for the offence, no one would, rendering the law toothless, they argued. Binance allowed more than 1.5 million virtual currency trades, totalling nearly $900m, that violated US sanctions, including ones involving Hamas’s Qassam Brigades, al-Qaeda and Iran.

“He made a business decision that violating US law was the best way to attract users, build his company, and line his pockets,” the US Department of Justice wrote in a sentencing memorandum filed last week.

Zhao’s lawyers insisted he should receive no prison time at all, citing his willingness to come from the United Arab Emirates, where he and his family live, to the US to plead guilty, despite the UAE’s lack of an extradition treaty with the US.

No one has ever been sentenced to prison time for similar violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, defence lawyers Mark Bartlett and William Burck told the judge Tuesday, and Zhao began making changes to make Binance a model of compliance with banking transparency regulations before stepping down.

“There is no excuse for my failure to establish the necessary compliance controls at Binance,” Zhao wrote in a letter to the court. “I wish I could change that part of Binance’s story. But under my direction, Binance has now implemented the most stringent anti-money laundering controls of any non-U.S. exchange, and those controls have been in place since 2022.”

www.aljazeera.com

Former Binance CEO CZ sentenced to four months

US said he looked away from transactions that supported child sex abuse, the illegal drug trade and ‘terrorism’.
www.aljazeera.com www.aljazeera.com
 
Top lieutenant to 'Crypto King' jailed for seven years

Another former executive of FTX has been jailed over his part in the cryptocurrency giant's implosion in late 2022.

Ryan Salame, who was the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, was sentenced to 90 months in prison, US federal prosecutors said.

Salame - who was a top lieutenant to Sam Bankman-Fried, the bankrupt crypto exchange's founder - pleaded guilty in September last year to violating political campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business.

Earlier this year, Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing $8bn (£6.3bn) from FTX customers.

"Salame's involvement in two serious federal crimes undermined public trust in American elections and the integrity of the financial system," Damian Williams, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement.

A jury found Salame guilty in November last year on seven fraud and conspiracy counts stemming from FTX's failure. Prosecutors have called it one of the biggest financial frauds in US history.

Salame's sentence was longer than the five to seven years that prosecutors sought.

In addition to the prison term, he was sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $6m in forfeiture and more than $5m in restitution.

Salame was one of four former top executives from Bankman-Fried's companies to plead guilty to charges, along with former Alameda chief executive officer Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh.

FTX was one of the world's largest crypto exchanges before its demise, turning Bankman-Fried into a business celebrity and attracting millions of customers who used the platform to buy and trade cryptocurrency.

Rumours of financial trouble sparked a run on deposits in 2022, precipitating the firm's implosion and exposing Bankman-Fried's crimes.

He was convicted by a New York jury last year on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, after a trial that detailed how he had used customers money to buy property, make political donations and put toward other investments.

BBC
 

Missing Cryptoqueen’s murky links to Bulgarian underworld​


In September 2019 a BBC podcast started reporting on the extraordinary tale of Ruja Ignatova, a Bulgarian woman wanted by the FBI after scamming investors out of $4.5bn (£3.54bn) through her fake cryptocurrency, before vanishing into thin air.

Now we have gone on her trail to try to discover her fate. BBC Eye Investigations and Panorama have looked at her close ties to a suspected Bulgarian organised crime boss and allegations she was brutally murdered. Did Ms Ignatova enjoy the stolen billions or was she killed by the very people paid to protect her?

Oxford University graduate Ruja Ignatova was born in Bulgaria and raised in Germany, pursuing a successful career in finance before launching the cryptocurrency OneCoin in 2014.

Ms Ignatova convinced millions of people around the world to invest in OneCoin, promising to eclipse the kind of huge returns seen by early Bitcoin investors.

But in reality, Ms Ignatova - known to many as Dr Ruja - had created a cleverly-disguised investment fraud, without the digital record that underlies legitimate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

As investigators from Germany and the US closed in on Ms Ignatova in October 2017, she took an early morning Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens, never to be seen again.

For the past year, BBC World Service’s Eye Investigations and Panorama have been trying to find out more about what happened to her, and whether she is even alive.

Key to this was establishing who her inner circle was.

Richard Reinhardt, who began the investigation into OneCoin for the US Internal Revenue Service alongside the FBI, told the BBC about a key character investigators have never publicly named before.

www.bbc.com

Missing Cryptoqueen Ruja Ignatova’s links to Bulgaria underworld

The BBC investigates Ruja Ignatova’s close ties to a suspected organised crime boss.
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
 
US-listed crypto stocks retreat following Trump-fueled spike

Shares of New York-listed crypto firms fell on Monday as bitcoin dipped after breaching the $70,000-mark for the first time since mid-June.

The sell-off erased gains from earlier in the session, when optimism fueled by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's pro-crypto speech lifted stocks.

The volatile cryptocurrency has often seen pullbacks after reaching key milestones as investors book profits. The industry, however, cheered Trump's promise of friendlier regulation.

 
Bitcoin tumbles around 5%

Bitcoin fell on Sunday, continuing a selloff in the world's largest cryptocurrency.

The cryptocurrency was recently down around 5.1% at $59,357 after falling the previous day.

Crypto markets have gotten a boost this year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved an exchange-traded fund to track the spot price of bitcoin and ether .

More recently, however, bitcoin has fallen alongside other assets including global equities in a broad selloff. The cryptocurrency is off nearly 20% from its March 2024 high.


Reuters
 
Bitcoin Tumbles to $53K, Ether Turns Negative for 2024 as Panic Grips Markets

A broad weekend selloff in crypto accelerated during Sunday evening U.S. hours, sending bitcoin (BTC) plunging to levels not seen since February and ether (ETH) back to prices not seen since December.

Bitcoin is lower by 12% over the past 24 hours and 20% on a week-over-week basis. Now down 21% over the past 24 hours and 30% over the past week, ether (ETH) has given up the entirety of its year-to-date gain, and is off by roughly 3% since Jan. 1.

The broader CoinDesk 20 Index is down 12% over the past 24 hours.

The trigger for what's now become a massive correction in crypto and traditional markets just might have been the Bank of Japan, which last week hiked its benchmark interest rate. That monetary tightening sent the yen shooting higher and the country's Nikkei stock index tumbling. Down another 6% early Monday, the Nikkei is now lower by roughly 15% over the past three sessions and 20% from a mid-July peak.

The action in Japan spread to the U.S., where the Nasdaq slid more than 5% in last week's final two sessions. Nasdaq futures are lower by 2.5% in Sunday evening action.

In addition to the Bank of Japan's somewhat unexpected hawkishness last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve also surprised a few – not by holding rates steady, but instead by appearing somewhat ambivalent about cutting rates in September, which nearly all market participants assumed was a sure thing.

Whether the Fed made a policy error remains to be seen, but markets are setting their own agenda at the moment. Traders have priced in a 100% chance of lower U.S. base rates in September, with a 71% chance of 50 basis points in rate cuts and just a 29% chance of a 25 basis point move.

Looking further out on the maturity curve, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield has tumbled to 3.75% on Sunday evening versus 4.25% just one week ago and a full 150-175 basis points less than the current fed funds target of 5.25%-5.50%.

www.coindesk.com

Bitcoin Tumbles to $53K, Ether Turns Negative for 2024 as Panic Grips Markets

Japan's Nikkei fell more than another 6% early Monday, bringing that index's three-day decline to about 15%.
www.coindesk.com www.coindesk.com
 
Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX ordered by US court to pay customers $12.7bn

A US court has ordered the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to shell out $12.7bn (£9.9bn) to compensate customers and fraud victims, five months after its founder was jailed for his role in the collapse of the company.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said it was the “largest such recovery” in the regulator’s history and would help return funds to those affected by the “massive fraudulent scheme orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried, his now-bankrupt FTX group of companies, and a core group of FTX insiders”.

FTX imploded in late 2022 amid a crypto price crash. Its founder, Bankman-Fried, was jailed in March for 25 years after he was convicted of fraud and conspiracy to launder money late last year. He has been ordered to forfeit $11bn in assets.

FTX, which was once worth $32bn, had used customer funds for risky investments, through a closely associated hedge fund, Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried in turn used customer money for his own exploits, including large political donations in his name, luxury cars, properties in the Bahamas and endorsements from A-list celebrities.

An enormous budget shortfall was revealed after customers started asking for their cash to be returned. Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried’s operations amounted to “old-fashioned embezzlement” disguised under the facade of new technology. In total, Bankman-Fried was accused of stealing $8bn from his customers.

“FTX used age-old tactics to create an illusion that it was a safe and secure place to access crypto markets,” the CFTC chair, Rostin Behnam, said. “But the basic regulatory tools, like governance, customer protections, and surveillance that exist to identify misconduct and ultimately prevent collapse, were simply not there.”

The latest compensation order by the US district court for the southern district of New York ends a near two-year legal case filed by the CFTC in December 2022.

The judge’s order permanently bans FTX from trading, holding or receiving funds for the purpose of buying or selling digital assets.

However, Behnam said the case was evidence that more stringent rules were needed to regulate digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

He said: “As I have been saying for years, this is just the tip of the iceberg. In the absence of digital asset legislation to fill regulatory gaps, entities will continue to operate in the shadows without these basic tools of sound regulation, sharpening their deceptive practices and continuing to dupe customers.”

THE GUARDIAN
 
Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years for role in FTX crypto fraud

Caroline Ellison has been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which has been described as one of biggest financial frauds in US history.

Ellison, 29, was a top executive at the firm and is also the ex-girlfriend of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison for stealing more than $8bn (£6.3bn) from customers.

As part of a plea deal, Ellison admitted charges including wire fraud and money laundering, and testified against Bankman-Fried. She was also ordered to forfeit more than $11bn (£8.2bn) to the court and could pay more if she's ordered to hand over any restitution.

She had faced a maximum sentence 55 times what she was given - 110 years in prison.

While Judge Lewis Kaplan called her cooperation with prosecutors "remarkable", he said she was "gravely culpable" and that her help and remorse for the crimes should not be a "get out of jail free card", according to Reuters.

In court, Ellison apologised to the victims of the scheme, according US media reports.

"On some level, my brain can't even comprehend the scale of the harm that I caused," she said.

FTX was founded in 2019. Just two years later it had grown into the third biggest crypto exchange in the world, valued at $32bn (£26bn).

Its apparent success turned Bankman-Fried into a billionaire and business celebrity.

But, in 2022, rumours of financial trouble sparked a run on its deposits, precipitating the firm's implosion and exposing Bankman-Fried's crimes.

He was convicted by a New York jury last year on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, after a trial that detailed how he had used customers' money for property purchases, investments and political donations.

Ellison was one of Bankman-Fried's closest lieutenants and lived and worked in the company's offices and luxury apartments in The Bahamas. The on-and-off couple built the dual empire of FTX and Alameda Research.

While Bankman-Fried was arrested and spent time in prison before his trial, Ellison remained free and agreed to help the criminal investigations

The revelation that she would testify against her former boyfriend and boss added to the drama of the high-profile trial.

Ellison testified over three days, telling the jury that Bankman-Fried directed her and others to take money from FTX's customers without their knowledge.

In tearful testimony, she said she felt "indescribably bad" about the fraud.

Prosecutors said Ellison met them about 20 times to help them piece together FTX's unravelling, and make their case against Bankman-Fried.

Prior to the sentencing, Ellison's legal team had argued the help she provided meant she should not be sent to jail.

The US Attorney's office in Manhattan, which brought the charges, had declined to call for a particular sentence, but acknowledged what it called her "extraordinary" cooperation and expression of remorse.

In May, Ryan Salame, the co-CEO of FTX's Bahamian subsidiary, was sentenced to 90 months in prison.

Salame pleaded guilty in September last year to violating political campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business.

BBC
 
Customers of failed crypto firm FTX set for refunds

Creditors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX are poised to receive up to $16.5bn (£12.6bn) under a bankruptcy plan approved in the US on Monday.

The agreement will put an end to a saga that started when the firm went bankrupt in November 2022, leaving millions of customers around the world without access to their accounts.

Last year, former boss Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of stealing customer funds ahead of the collapse and later sentenced to 25 years in prison.

The deal will allow former customers to recover a sum worth about 119% of what they had in their accounts at the time of bankruptcy, according to FTX.

Creditors are expected to receive their funds 60 days after the plan is declared effective. This date has yet to be agreed.

John J Ray III, the lawyer who was appointed to handle FTX's bankruptcy process and its current chief executive, said the approval of the plan was a "significant milestone" in the firm's efforts to repay the money to people and firms in more than 200 jurisdictions around the world.

"Looking ahead, we are poised to return 100% of bankruptcy claim amounts plus interest for non-governmental creditors through what will be the largest and most complex bankruptcy estate asset distribution in history," he said in a statement.

When FTX declared bankruptcy in late 2022, roughly $8bn in customer funds were reported missing, not including debts to investors and others.

Mr Ray's team has since recovered assets worth $14.7-$16.5bn, in part by selling off FTX's remaining assets, such as its investment in the artificial intelligence firm Anthropic.

The deal reached with the bankruptcy court allows the firm to repay customers ahead of the other unsecured creditors such as the government.

It has drawn a mixed reception from some former customers. Some have suggested the repayment in cash will not match the loss of crypto holdings that would be worth far more today had they not been stolen.

The value of bitcoin has more than tripled since November 2022.

BBC
 
Hunt for Bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto hits another dead-end

Bitcoin underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry, is now traded by the world's biggest investment houses and is even an official currency in one country.

But despite its meteoric rise, a deep mystery remains at its heart: what is the true identity of its founder, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto?

Many have tried to answer that question, but so far all have failed. In October, a high-profile HBO documentary suggested that a Canadian bitcoin expert called Peter Todd was he. The only problem: he said he was not, and the crypto world largely shrugged it off.

So, inevitably, ears *****ed up across our newsroom - and the crypto world at large - when on Thursday a call went out that the mysterious creator of Bitcoin was to, finally, unmask himself at a press conference.

There is deep interest in who Satoshi Nakamoto is in part because they are considered a revolutionary programmer who helped spawn the crypto industry.

Their voice, opinions and world view would be extremely influential on an industry with such a devoted and zealous fanbase.

But the fascination also stems from the fact that, as the holder of more than one million bitcoins, Satoshi would be a multi-billionaire, not least because the price of the coins is currently close to an all-time high.

Given that vast wealth, it was somewhat unusual to be asked by the organiser of Thursday’s press conference to pay for my seat at his grand unveiling.

A front row seat would be £100. It was another £50 if I wanted unlimited questions. Organiser Charles Anderson even encouraged me to spend £500 in exchange for the privilege of interviewing "Satoshi" on stage.

I declined.

Mr Anderson said I could come along any way but cautioned there might not be a seat for me, such was the level of anticipation.

As it happened, seating wasn’t a problem.

Only around a dozen reporters turned up to the prestigious Frontline Club - which interrupted proceedings at one point to stress it only provided a room, and not any official endorsement.

Very soon it became clear that all attendees were extremely sceptical.

After some digging it emerged both the organiser and the purported Satoshi were currently embroiled in a complex legal fight over fraud allegations - linked to claims to be Satoshi.

It was an unpromising start, and things only got worse from there.

Mr Anderson invited "Satoshi" to come on stage.

A man called Stephen Mollah, who had been sat silently on the side the whole time walked up and resolutely declared: “I am here to make a statement that yes: I am Satoshi Nakamoto and I created the Bitcoin on Blockchain technology.”

Over the following hour, reporters went from amused to irritated as he failed to provide any of the promised evidence for his claims.

Mr Mollah promised that he would make the Hail-Mary move of unlocking and interacting with the first-ever Bitcoins to be created - something that only Satoshi could do.

But he didn't.

I departed, along with other bemused reporters, taking with us any lingering doubts that this would prove to be yet another dead-end in the quest to unmask Satoshi.

Not another one

The list of those identified - unsuccessfully - as Satoshi Nakamoto is long.

In 2014, a high-profile article in Newsweek said it was Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California.

But he denied it and the claim has largely been debunked.

A year later, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright was outed as Satoshi by reporters.

He denied it, before saying it was true - but then failed over many years to produce any evidence.

In the spring the High Court in London ruled that Mr Wright was not the inventor.

Tech billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk also denied he was behind the cryptocurrency after a former employee at one of his firms, SpaceX, suggested it.

Which brings us to the question: does it really matter?

The crypto market's current valuation means it is worth more than Google. And it seems inconceivable that the tech giant would play such a big role in our lives without people knowing who founded it, and owned a sizeable chunk of the firm.

Perhaps there’s good reason for the real Satoshi to keep schtum though. That bitcoin stash would make them worth an estimated $69bn and their life and character would no doubt be heavily scrutinised if they were found.

Peter Todd, who was named by the HBO documentary as being Satoshi, said the unwelcome attention he's received has made him fearful for his safety.

Many in the crypto world enjoy the fact that the mystery remains unsolved.

"No-one knows who Satoshi is and that's a good thing," Adam Back, one of its core developers (and another potential Satoshi candidate) posted on X recently.

Natalie Brunell, a Bitcoin podcaster, thinks Satoshi's anonymity is not only deliberate but essential.

"By concealing his true identity, Satoshi ensured that Bitcoin wouldn’t have a leader or central figure, whose personal agenda could influence the protocol," she told me.

"This allows people to trust Bitcoin as a system, rather than placing their trust in an individual or company."

Carol Alexander, professor of finance at Sussex University - who lectures on the history of Bitcoin - is less sure.

In her view, the circus around who Satoshi Nakamoto is distracts from people looking into - and getting to grips with - the more serious question of how cryptocurrencies might upend the way the economy works.

As I left the Frontline Club it was hard to compute the bizarre press event, beyond one obvious fact.

For now - and perhaps forever - the search for Satoshi continues.

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
Hunt for Bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto hits another dead-end

Bitcoin underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry, is now traded by the world's biggest investment houses and is even an official currency in one country.

But despite its meteoric rise, a deep mystery remains at its heart: what is the true identity of its founder, the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto?

Many have tried to answer that question, but so far all have failed. In October, a high-profile HBO documentary suggested that a Canadian bitcoin expert called Peter Todd was he. The only problem: he said he was not, and the crypto world largely shrugged it off.

So, inevitably, ears *****ed up across our newsroom - and the crypto world at large - when on Thursday a call went out that the mysterious creator of Bitcoin was to, finally, unmask himself at a press conference.

There is deep interest in who Satoshi Nakamoto is in part because they are considered a revolutionary programmer who helped spawn the crypto industry.

Their voice, opinions and world view would be extremely influential on an industry with such a devoted and zealous fanbase.

But the fascination also stems from the fact that, as the holder of more than one million bitcoins, Satoshi would be a multi-billionaire, not least because the price of the coins is currently close to an all-time high.

Given that vast wealth, it was somewhat unusual to be asked by the organiser of Thursday’s press conference to pay for my seat at his grand unveiling.

A front row seat would be £100. It was another £50 if I wanted unlimited questions. Organiser Charles Anderson even encouraged me to spend £500 in exchange for the privilege of interviewing "Satoshi" on stage.

I declined.

Mr Anderson said I could come along any way but cautioned there might not be a seat for me, such was the level of anticipation.

As it happened, seating wasn’t a problem.

Only around a dozen reporters turned up to the prestigious Frontline Club - which interrupted proceedings at one point to stress it only provided a room, and not any official endorsement.

Very soon it became clear that all attendees were extremely sceptical.

After some digging it emerged both the organiser and the purported Satoshi were currently embroiled in a complex legal fight over fraud allegations - linked to claims to be Satoshi.

It was an unpromising start, and things only got worse from there.

Mr Anderson invited "Satoshi" to come on stage.

A man called Stephen Mollah, who had been sat silently on the side the whole time walked up and resolutely declared: “I am here to make a statement that yes: I am Satoshi Nakamoto and I created the Bitcoin on Blockchain technology.”

Over the following hour, reporters went from amused to irritated as he failed to provide any of the promised evidence for his claims.

Mr Mollah promised that he would make the Hail-Mary move of unlocking and interacting with the first-ever Bitcoins to be created - something that only Satoshi could do.

But he didn't.

I departed, along with other bemused reporters, taking with us any lingering doubts that this would prove to be yet another dead-end in the quest to unmask Satoshi.

Not another one

The list of those identified - unsuccessfully - as Satoshi Nakamoto is long.

In 2014, a high-profile article in Newsweek said it was Dorian Nakamoto, a Japanese-American man living in California.

But he denied it and the claim has largely been debunked.

A year later, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright was outed as Satoshi by reporters.

He denied it, before saying it was true - but then failed over many years to produce any evidence.

In the spring the High Court in London ruled that Mr Wright was not the inventor.

Tech billionaire and crypto enthusiast Elon Musk also denied he was behind the cryptocurrency after a former employee at one of his firms, SpaceX, suggested it.

Which brings us to the question: does it really matter?

The crypto market's current valuation means it is worth more than Google. And it seems inconceivable that the tech giant would play such a big role in our lives without people knowing who founded it, and owned a sizeable chunk of the firm.

Perhaps there’s good reason for the real Satoshi to keep schtum though. That bitcoin stash would make them worth an estimated $69bn and their life and character would no doubt be heavily scrutinised if they were found.

Peter Todd, who was named by the HBO documentary as being Satoshi, said the unwelcome attention he's received has made him fearful for his safety.

Many in the crypto world enjoy the fact that the mystery remains unsolved.

"No-one knows who Satoshi is and that's a good thing," Adam Back, one of its core developers (and another potential Satoshi candidate) posted on X recently.

Natalie Brunell, a Bitcoin podcaster, thinks Satoshi's anonymity is not only deliberate but essential.

"By concealing his true identity, Satoshi ensured that Bitcoin wouldn’t have a leader or central figure, whose personal agenda could influence the protocol," she told me.

"This allows people to trust Bitcoin as a system, rather than placing their trust in an individual or company."

Carol Alexander, professor of finance at Sussex University - who lectures on the history of Bitcoin - is less sure.

In her view, the circus around who Satoshi Nakamoto is distracts from people looking into - and getting to grips with - the more serious question of how cryptocurrencies might upend the way the economy works.

As I left the Frontline Club it was hard to compute the bizarre press event, beyond one obvious fact.

For now - and perhaps forever - the search for Satoshi continues.

BBC
Click to expand...

Satoshi Nakamoto has more than 1-million Bitcoins. Wow!

That's worth billions of Dollars.

Wouldn't be surprised if Satoshi are a group of people and not one person.
 
Crypto expert with links to gang shot dead at Brazilian airport

A Brazilian businessman, with ties to one of the country's most powerful criminal groups, has been shot dead at Guarulhos Airport in São Paulo.

Antônio Vinicius Gritzbach had recently entered into a plea bargain with local prosecutors to provide information about Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) - or First Capital Command.

He received death threats from the gang as a result, local media reports.

Three others were injured in the attack, with footage online showing the aftermath. Police said officers had been deployed to the airport and surrounding area.

The moment two hooded men exited a car holding sub-machine guns and began firing outside the airport terminal was caught on security camera.

Gritzbach, a former member of the PCC, dropped his bag and tried to run away - but he was shot many times and died at the scene.

A cryptocurrency expert, Gritzbach had been in the process of telling officials how he helped the group launder millions of dollars.

Reports in Brazilian media suggest he was once considered a key player in the gang's operation.

As part of his plea deal, Gritzbach had promised to help investigators locate other members and hand over documents.

In exchange, São Paulo prosecutors are said to have offered Gritzbach a judicial pardon and a reduction of his sentence for money laundering.

The PCC was formed in the early 1990s and has gone on to become one of Brazil's most feared drug gangs. Its members, however, are not confined to Latin America.

Last year, a report by security services in Portugal alone suggested the group had 1,000 associates in the European country's capital, Lisbon.

São Paulo's organised crime taskforce estimated in 2023 that PCC makes almost $1bn (£773,000) from international cocaine trafficking.

BBC
 
US hacker sentenced over Bitcoin heist worth billions

A hacker has been sentenced to five years in a US prison for laundering the proceeds of one of the biggest ever cryptocurrency thefts.

Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year in the case involving the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange being hacked in 2016 and the theft of almost 120,000 bitcoin.

He laundered the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, who used the alias Razzlekhan to promote her hip hop music.

At the time of the theft, the bitcoin was worth around $70m (£55.3m), but had risen in value to more than $4.5bn by the time they were arrested. At today's prices they would be worth more than double that.

The $3.6bn worth of assets recovered in the case was the biggest financial seizure in the Department of Justice's history, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.

“It’s important to send a message that you can’t commit these crimes with impunity, that there are consequences to them,” district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said.

Lichtenstein, who has been in prison since his arrest in February 2022, expressed remorse for his actions.

He also said that he hopes to apply his skills to fight cybercrime after serving his sentence.

Morgan also pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is due to be sentenced on 18 November.

According court documents, Lichtenstein used advanced hacking tools and techniques to hack into Bitfinex.

Following the hack, he enlisted Morgan's help to launder the stolen funds.

They "employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques", the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The methods included using fictitious identities, switching the funds into different cryptocurrencies and buying gold coins.

Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia but grew up in the US, would then meet couriers while on family trips and move the laundered money back home, prosecutors said.

Morgan's Razzlekhan persona went viral on social media when the case emerged.

Even as the couple attempted to cover up the hack, she published dozens of expletive-filled music videos and rap songs filmed in locations around New York.

In her lyrics she called herself a "bad-ass money maker" and "the crocodile of Wall Street".

In articles published in Forbes magazine, Morgan also claimed to be a successful technology businesswoman, calling herself an "economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor and rapper".

BBC
 
BouncerGuy said:
US hacker sentenced over Bitcoin heist worth billions

A hacker has been sentenced to five years in a US prison for laundering the proceeds of one of the biggest ever cryptocurrency thefts.

Ilya Lichtenstein pleaded guilty last year in the case involving the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange being hacked in 2016 and the theft of almost 120,000 bitcoin.

He laundered the stolen cryptocurrency with the help of his wife Heather Morgan, who used the alias Razzlekhan to promote her hip hop music.

At the time of the theft, the bitcoin was worth around $70m (£55.3m), but had risen in value to more than $4.5bn by the time they were arrested. At today's prices they would be worth more than double that.

The $3.6bn worth of assets recovered in the case was the biggest financial seizure in the Department of Justice's history, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said at the time.

“It’s important to send a message that you can’t commit these crimes with impunity, that there are consequences to them,” district judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said.

Lichtenstein, who has been in prison since his arrest in February 2022, expressed remorse for his actions.

He also said that he hopes to apply his skills to fight cybercrime after serving his sentence.

Morgan also pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is due to be sentenced on 18 November.

According court documents, Lichtenstein used advanced hacking tools and techniques to hack into Bitfinex.

Following the hack, he enlisted Morgan's help to launder the stolen funds.

They "employed numerous sophisticated laundering techniques", the Department of Justice said in a statement.

The methods included using fictitious identities, switching the funds into different cryptocurrencies and buying gold coins.

Lichtenstein, who was born in Russia but grew up in the US, would then meet couriers while on family trips and move the laundered money back home, prosecutors said.

Morgan's Razzlekhan persona went viral on social media when the case emerged.

Even as the couple attempted to cover up the hack, she published dozens of expletive-filled music videos and rap songs filmed in locations around New York.

In her lyrics she called herself a "bad-ass money maker" and "the crocodile of Wall Street".

In articles published in Forbes magazine, Morgan also claimed to be a successful technology businesswoman, calling herself an "economist, serial entrepreneur, software investor and rapper".

BBC
Click to expand...

Only 5 years? Joke of a punishment. Punishment should've been heavier than that.

Theft was worth Billions of Dollars.
 
Bitcoin crosses $100k - and seven other wild moments in its history

The price of Bitcoin has for the first time broken past the $100,000 mark, hitting a new record high.

The value of the world's biggest cryptocurrency has been boosted by hopes US President-elect Donald Trump will adopt crypto-friendly policies.

The milestone was reached hours after Trump said he would nominate former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) commissioner Paul Atkins to run the Wall Street regulator.

Mr Atkins is seen as being far more pro-cryptocurrency than the current head of the SEC, Gary Gensler.

The $100,000 milestone prompted celebrations from cryptocurrency fans around the world.

Bitcoin's wildly fluctuating value has always attracted interest, with its backers reacting with delight when it has passed previous price thresholds - and defiance during its slumps.

But this particular landmark has been especially keenly anticipated. For weeks charts, memes and predictions have swirled around social media about when the price would hit the figure thought to be one of the holy grails of the crypto world.

Millions of viewers even tuned in to online watch parties as the price hovered close to $100k.

The value of a single bitcoin is one of the barometers of optimism in the cryptocurrency industry which is now estimated to be worth $3.3tn, according to analysis firm Coin Market Cap.

Trump's election victory last month was the catalyst for the latest surge.

The president-elect has vowed to make the US "the crypto capital of the planet" - a remarkable turnaround given as recently as 2021 he was calling Bitcoin a "scam."

Also remarkable is just how Bitcoin's price has rocketed. A valuation of $100k represents a 40% increase on election day in the U.S. and more than double the price it started the year at.

From its enigmatic inventor to the bringing down of the so-called Crypto King, it's a story with many twists and turns, which has seen the making - and losing - of huge fortunes.

So here's the BBC's list of the seven wildest moments - so far - in Bitcoin's tumultuous history.

1. The mysterious creator of Bitcoin

Despite its enormous profile, no-one actually knows for sure who invented Bitcoin. The idea for it was posted on internet forums in 2008 by someone calling themselves Satoshi Nakamoto.

They explained how a peer-to-peer digital cash system could work to enable people to send virtual coins over the internet, just as easily as sending an email.

Satoshi created a complex computer system that would process transactions and create new coins using a huge network of self-appointed volunteers around the world who used special software and powerful computers.

But he - or they - never revealed their identity, and the world has never worked it out.

In 2014, Japanese-American man Dorian Nakamoto was pursued by reporters who thought he was the elusive Bitcoin creator, but it proved to be a false lead caused by some mistranslated information.

Australian computer scientist Craig Wright said it was him in 2016 - but after years of legal battles, a High Court judge concluded he was not Satoshi.

Earlier this year, a Canadian Bitcoin expert called Peter Todd strongly denied being Satoshi, while in London this month a British man, Stephen Mollah, claimed he was - but no-one believed him.

2. Making history with pizza

Bitcoin now underpins a two trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry - but the first recorded transaction using it was the purchase of pizza.

On 22 May 2010, Lazlo Hanyecz, offered $41 worth of Bitcoin on a crypto forum in return for two pizzas.

A 19-year-old student obliged and the day went down in history for fans of the currency as #BitcoinPizza day.

A source of memes for those in crypto community, it also showcased the power of Bitcoin - an internet money that could genuinely buy items online.

Criminals must have been watching too, because within a year the first darknet marketplace was launched selling drugs and other illegal goods in exchange for Bitcoin.

The deal looks pretty bad for Lazlo now too. If he had held onto those coins they would now be worth hundreds of millions of dollars!

3. Becoming legal tender

In September 2021, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, central America, made Bitcoin legal tender.

Hairdressers, supermarkets and other shops had to accept Bitcoin by law, alongside its main currency, the US dollar.

Many Bitcoin enthusiasts and reporters visited the area, briefly boosting tourism to the country.

While President Bukele hoped the move would increase investment in his country and cut costs for citizens exchanging money, it did not become as popular as he hoped.

He is still hoping it will take off but for now the US dollar still remains king in the country.

As well as the huge amount of public money President Bukele spent on trying to make people embrace Bitcoin he also, controversially, bought more than 6,000 bitcoins over the past few years.

The president spent at least $120m buying up bitcoins at various prices in the hope of making a profit for his cash-strapped country.

It started to look good for him in December 2023 when, for the first time, his stash skyrocketed in value.

A website built by Dutch software engineer Elias Zerrouq is tracking the country's Bitcoin holdings and currently estimates that the coins have risen 98% in value.

4. Kazakhstan's crypto boom and bust

In 2021, Kazakhstan became a hotspot for Bitcoin mining - the process of crunching through the complex calculations that underpin crypto transactions.

These days it takes warehouses full of the latest computers running all day and all night, but the reward is brand new bitcoins for those companies that take part.

Warehouses of computers require lots of power - and many businesses moved to Kazakhstan where electricity was abundant thanks to huge coal reserves.

At first the government welcomed them with open arms as they brought investment.

But too many miners arrived and put huge strain on the electricity grid, putting the country at risk of blackouts.

Within a year, Kazakhstan's Bitcoin mining industry went from boom to bust as the government imposed restrictions and increased taxes to curb the growth.

Around the world it is estimated that the Bitcoin network uses as much electricity as a small country, raising concerns about its environmental impact.

5. Bitcoins in the rubbish dump

Imagine having a crypto wallet worth more than $100m (£78m) - and then accidentally throwing away a hard drive containing the login details.

That's what James Howells, from south Wales, says happened to him

The very nature of crypto means that recovery is not as easy as resetting your password. With no banks involved - there is no customer support helpline.

Unfortunately for him, his local council in Newport refused to let him access the landfill site where he says the device ended up - even after he offered to donate 25% of his Bitcoin stash to local charities if they let him.

He told the BBC: "It was a penny dropping moment and it was a sinking feeling."

6. Crypto King fraudster

No one has lost as much Bitcoin as former billionaire crypto mogul, Sam Bankman-Fried. The founder of the massive crypto firm FTX was nicknamed the Crypto King and loved by the community.

FTX was a cryptocurrency exchange that allowed people to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

Journalists had discovered that Bankman-Fried's company was financially shaky and had been illegally transferring FTX customer funds to prop up his other company, Alameda Research.

Just before his arrest at his luxury apartment complex in the Bahamas in December 2022 he spoke to reporters. He told the BBC: "I don't think I committed fraud. I didn't want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was."

After being extradited to the US he was found guilty of fraud and money laundering and was jailed for 25 years.

7. Investment bank boom

Despite all the turmoil, Bitcoin continues to attract attention from investors and big companies.

In fact, in January 2024, some of the biggest financial firms in the world added Bitcoin to their official asset lists as Spot Bitcoin ETFs. These are like stocks and shares, linked to the value of Bitcoin but you don't have to personally own any.

Customers have been pouring billions into these brand new products. Companies including Blackrock, Fidelity and GrayScale, have also been buying up Bitcoins in their thousands, pushing up its value to record highs.

It is a huge milestone for crypto with some fans believing that Bitcoin is finally being taken as seriously as the mysterious Satoshi imagined.

Nonetheless, few would back against more wild moments as the Bitcoin story continues to unfold.

BBC
 
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