DMM Bitcoin, a subsidiary of DMM Group, has reported a significant security breach resulting in the theft of 4,502.9 bitcoin (BTC), valued at approximately 3 million. The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange detected the unauthorized transfer of funds from its wallet at 1:26 p.m. on Friday, May 31, 2024. In response, DMM Bitcoin has assured its customers […]
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Bankman-Fried’s Defense Targets $300M Loan Interrogations; Ex-CTO Gary Wang Spotlighted
Attorneys defending ex-FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried are keen to interrogate the former CTO of the now-dissolved exchange concerning personal loans ranging from 0-300 million, a fresh letter from Cohen & Gresser LLP reveals. Former CTO Gary Wang is set to return to the stand on Tuesday, with reports suggesting that ex-Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison will follow suit.
0M Loans Under the Microscope in FTX Legal Battle
A letter from the attorneys representing Sam Bankman-Fried seeks permission from the judge to allow certain lines of questioning during the cross-examination of Gary Wang, a witness for the prosecution. The defense wants to question Wang about the involvement of FTX attorneys in structuring and executing personal loans worth 0-300 million that Wang received from Alameda Research to fund investments and purchase property.
The prosecution’s direct examination of Wang already revealed that FTX attorneys were involved with the loans, according to the lawyer Chris Everdell at Cohen & Gresser LLP. The defense argues this line of questioning is relevant to Bankman-Fried’s good faith and lack of criminal intent regarding the money laundering conspiracy charge. The indictment alleges Bankman-Fried took steps to conceal the source of funds for investments as coming from FTX customer funds transferred through Alameda.
Questioning Wang about his understanding that the loans were structured by lawyers, memorialized in notes, and imposed real obligations could rebut the claim the loans were a sham to conceal the source of funds. Wang reportedly told the prosecution he relied on the lawyers regarding the loans and did not think they were designed to be illegal or conceal Alameda as the source of funds.
This corroborates Bankman-Fried’s understanding that the loans were proper. Consequently, the defense seeks the judge’s approval to probe Wang on these subjects during cross-examination. Last week, Wang shared insights with the judge about Alameda’s unique advantages and a whopping billion credit line. He detailed how, in collaboration with developer Nishad Singh, they crafted the “allow negative” function, permitting Alameda to trade without backed credit. After the cross-examination, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison is slated to testify.
What do you think about the lawyer’s letter to the judge about Wang’s cross-examination? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
The Man Behind Helix, A Bitcoin Mixer, Pleads Guilty To Laundering Over $300M
Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers and here’s proof. 38-years-old Larry Dean Harmon admitted to being the operator of Helix, a Bitcoin Mixer service that operated on the Darknet. According to the US Department of Justice, “Harmon advertised Helix to customers on the Darknet to conceal transactions from law enforcement.” What was this man thinking?
Related Reading | DIY Bitcoin ATM Money Launderer Pleads Guilty
The press release continues:
Harmon admitted that Helix partnered with several Darknet markets, including AlphaBay, Evolution, Cloud 9 and others, to provide bitcoin money laundering services for market customers. In total, Helix moved over 350,000 bitcoin – valued at over 0 million at the time of the transactions – on behalf of customers, with the largest volume coming from Darknet markets. Harmon further admitted that he conspired with Darknet vendors and marketplace administrators to launder such bitcoins generated through illegal drug trafficking offenses on those Darknet marketplaces.
The blockchain sees it all and registers every transaction forever. A mixer, also known as a tumbler, is a service that seeks to anonymize transactions. They pool together funds from several parties, mix them up, and serve supposedly clean coins to everyone involved. At the very least, the coins can’t be traced to a specific address. For that, they charge a fee.
BTC price chart for 08/19/2021 on Currency.com | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Even Helix Didn’t Know How Much It Was Laundering. And Bitcoin Is Money
Betraying everything that’s sacred, Larry Dean Harmon’s defense was that he wasn’t guilty because Bitcoin is not money. The law went on the record and confirmed what Bitcoiners have been saying for years, the Washington Post reports:
A line of reasoning rejected by Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell.“ ‘Money,’ ” she wrote, “commonly means a medium of exchange, method of payment, or store of value. Bitcoin is these things.”
That’s on the record. The law knows that Bitcoin is money.
In any case, one thing about mixers is that there are no humans involved in the process. The system does it all. In Helix’s case, apparently, no one even knew how much money they were laundering. Bitcoin.com quotes Harmon’s defense attorney Charles Flood:
“One interesting thing about this case is there was a double-blind system Harmon had set up with Helix,” Flood said in the federal courtroom on Wednesday. “While he completely acknowledges that he violated the law and was in fact laundering money and knew it was drug proceeds … he does not know the exact amount laundered,” Flood added.
What Will The Law Do With Larry Dean Harmon?
For the punishment, we quote once again the original press release:
As part of his plea, Harmon also agreed to the forfeiture of more than 4,400 bitcoin, valued at more than 0 million at today’s prices, and other seized properties that were involved in the money laundering conspiracy. Harmon will be sentenced at a date to be determined and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of 0,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, a term of supervised release of not more than three years, and mandatory restitution.
Ouch.
Related Reading | Top Bitcoin Tumblers Google Result Links To Sites Stealing
This all leads to our original statement, Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers. Or for criminals in general. To drive the point home, the Wall Street Journal quotes Ari Redbord. He’s “a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former senior adviser at Treasury,” and says:
The guilty plea shows U.S. law enforcement is pursuing cryptocurrency mixers with connections to the Darknet and illicit activities, while the transparency of blockchain enables them to trace the funds.
“The nature of cryptocurrency is to allow law enforcement to have unique visibility on financial flow where they never had before.”
And that’s another thing Bitcoiners have been saying all along.
Featured Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay – Charts by TradingView
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Coinbase Raises $300m To Accelerate Crypto Adoption; Company Now Worth $8B
The post Coinbase Raises 0m To Accelerate Crypto Adoption; Company Now Worth B appeared first on DCEBrief.
Andreessen Horowitz’s $300m Crypto Fund Buys Stakes in Stablecoin Project
An upcoming stable coin project featuring a loaning system has bagged a million investment from Andreessen Horowitz.
VC Firm to Govern MakerDAO
The venture capital firm, with a history of high profile investments into crypto projects, bought 6 percent of the total MKR supply through its 0m crypto fund, a16z crypto. By doing so, the US firm has got the rights to govern the Maker network, which includes MakerDAO, the stable coin firm, and the Dai Credit System as it becomes the first DAO-enabled stable coin project.
The investment also marks a16z’s very first strategic purchase in the crypto industry. Katie Haun, general partner at a16z, believes MakerDAO will provide a compelling opportunity to their fund in the crypto-space. The former federal prosecutor, who is also renowned for having led the investigation against Mt Gox and Silk Road, said in her press statement:
“MakerDAO’s technology, ecosystem and talent have put theory into action to deliver a decentralized stablecoin that we believe will help drive the future of the crypto economy.”
For MakerDAO, a million investment means more funds to develop their Dai Credit System. Not to be confused with MKR, which is a proof-of-stake token, the Dai Credit System uses a specialized stablecoin called Dai. The Dai token is soft-pegged to the US Dollar and is created during a seemingly unique loaning process.
“Dai is created when asset owners deposit collateral to secure a loan, which is denominated in Dai stablecoin […] This allows owners of illiquid or unstable assets that wish to retain those assets over the long term to gain short-term liquidity, i.e., an ability to spend value otherwise locked in those assets while still retaining those assets,” stated Haun.
For now, borrowers will be able to use ETH token as collateral to secure a loan from MakerDAO. The team has also launched a multi-collateral DAI system on the Kovan Testnet. It would allow borrowers to collateralize a diverse basket of crypto-assets in addition to ETH.
The Maker network, in general, makes use of a set of autonomous smart contracts to coordinate the loan system. That said, anybody with an internet connection and with some collateral to spare can create Dai stablecoins, without needing an intermediary.
“With an exciting fall full of announcements, MakerDAO is making its mark as a vanguard of blockchain technology. The team looks forward to continued product excellence and rapid Dai adoption in the coming months,” the Maker team said as it signed off.
Image from Shutterstock
The post Andreessen Horowitz’s 0m Crypto Fund Buys Stakes in Stablecoin Project appeared first on NewsBTC.
Tether Issues Another $300m as Bitcoin Price Reverses Course
Every time Tether “prints” additional USDT tokens, the Bitcoin community is in uproar. Many people perceive this company to be one of the biggest BTC price manipulators to date. Their most recent batch of 300 million USDT has not gone by unnoticed. This doesn’t mean the company is doing anything wrong or illegal, though.
Tether Press in Full Effect
Over the past few months, there have been a lot of controversies surrounding Tether. The company provides users with a digital token representing a value of . Although there are no ties to the Federal Reserve, the company is allowed to issue this token right now. However, Bitcoin users all over the world are somewhat concerned over this particular scheme. In most people’s opinion, Tether adds a lot more USDT to the list whenever the BTC price is dropping.
With a new issuance of another 300 million USDT, a lot of questions are raised. It is the first time in over a month Tether issued more USDT tokens through OMNI. That in itself is rather interesting to keep an eye on as well. It is a pure coincidence the Bitcoin price took a nasty tumble in the same month. Even so, the speculation remains as to how this company affects the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Until proven guilty, they are doing nothing wrong or illegal.
It is also worth noting how Tether has issued nearly bn worth of USDT since January. This seems to indicate the demand for their token is skyrocketing. As to who buys those tokens, is a different matter altogether. It seems all UST-related markets across the many different exchanges are doing pretty well these days. With over .52 billion worth of USDT in circulation right now, things will get very interesting. This does not include the tokens issued on the Ethereum network, which account for nearly million as well.
What Comes Next for Bitcoin?
As one would expect, people will likely see a massive Bitcoin price surge in the next 24 hours. This morning, the value surpassed ,000 for the first time in nearly a week. This doesn’t appear to be fueled by the USDT printing process, though. Instead, it seems business is resuming as usual without any specific outside factors influencing this process as of right now.
Whether or not we will see more price gains, remains to be seen. For now, it remains a mystery why Tether is issuing so many USDT in one batch. A total of 0 million worth in one go is pretty steep, even for this company. As long as they have 0 million in extra assets to cover this process, there is nothing to be concerned about. The big question is whether or not that is effectively the case. Until Tether undergoes a proper audit, we will never know for sure.
Rest assured things will get interesting for all cryptocurrencies moving forward. The USDT token can be traded against top altcoins as well. Which of these markets will see some major momentum in the coming hours and days, remains to be determined. Anything can happen in the world of cryptocurrency these days. For now, we have to wait and see how things play out exactly.
The post Tether Issues Another 0m as Bitcoin Price Reverses Course appeared first on NewsBTC.
Morgan Stanley Banker’s Brother Stole $300M Through Two Fraudulent ICOs
Bankers have no love lost for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies these days. That’s been proven a few dozen times in recent years. However, family members of prominent bankers are entirely different creatures. Maksim Zaslavskiy, the brother of a Morgan Stanley banker, was arrested earlier this week. Apparently, Zaslavskiy had run an illegal cryptocurrency project and defrauded investors for over US0,000 in the process. Initial Coin Offerings Remain a big Risk If there is one trend in the cryptocurrency world to be wary of, it is the initial coin offering hype. Dozens of new projects run ICOs every single month. It is difficult to
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