The Brazilian State Attorney General has dismissed allegations that Johann Steynberg, the late mastermind of a South African bitcoin ponzi scheme, was granted irregular access to a computer and the internet while in prison. Acting public prosecutor Lauro Machado Nogueira recently released a report stating that evidence from prison authorities contradicted these claims. Additionally, Steynberg, […]
Bitcoin News
Cryptographic Clarity: Unmasking Satoshi Nakamoto Demands Ironclad Evidence Amid a Sea of Claims
In the past seven years, the crypto world has witnessed various individuals claiming to be the true Satoshi Nakamoto, the mastermind behind the Bitcoin white paper and the initiator of the first blockchain. Yet, despite their efforts, none have managed to convince the community of their authenticity as the creators of Bitcoin. It appears there […]
Bitcoin News
DOJ Halts Second Trial Against FTX’s Bankman Fried, Citing Sufficiency of Initial Evidence and ‘Public Interest’
On Dec. 29, 2023, past 6 p.m. Eastern Time (ET), the Department of Justice (DOJ) conveyed in a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan its decision to not move forward with a subsequent trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-CEO of FTX.
FTX’s Bankman Fried Avoids Second Trial
According to several reports on Friday evening, prosecutors have decided against pursuing a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Matthew Russell Lee of the Inner City Press disclosed the update on X, posting a snapshot of the DOJ’s letter and also distributing it on his Patreon.
“So no evidence and cross examination about the campaign finance and China bribe counts, no getting to the bottom of who took the money,” Russell Lee wrote on Friday. “It is known that officials in the Bahamas, whose request to drop these charges DOJ cited in severing them, took SBF’s and FTX customers’ money.”
Following the announcement, the X user known as ‘amuse’ weighed in on the development. “Shock: SBF won’t force Biden to prosecute him for making illegal campaign contributions to Democrats,” amuse said. Another individual wrote, “dropping the campaign finance and China bribe counts, raises questions about who ultimately benefited from these financial transactions.”
The letter from the U.S. government clarifies that “much of the evidence that would be offered in a second trial was already offered in the first trial and can be considered by the court at the defendant’s March 2024 sentencing.” The DOJ pointed to the “practical reality” and the “strong public interest in a prompt resolution of this matter” as the rationale behind its decision.
SBF is confronting the likelihood of an extensive incarceration period, having been found guilty on numerous counts of fraud and money laundering. He may receive up to 110 years if the judge imposes the harshest sentences consecutively. The court has set March 28, 2024, for SBF’s sentencing.
What do you think about the DOJ dropping the second trial against SBF? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Bulgarian Prosecutors Drop Charges Against Crypto Lender Nexo — ‘No Evidence of Criminal Activity’
The prosecutor’s office for Sofia, the capital city of Bulgaria, has dropped criminal proceedings against crypto lender Nexo. “The team of supervising prosecutors came to the conclusion that there was no evidence of committed crimes,” the authorities stated, adding that crypto assets are currently not financial instruments and their trading is not subject to regulation in the country.
Crypto Trading Not Subject to Regulation in Bulgaria
The Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Bulgaria announced Friday that the Sofia City Prosecutor’s Office has terminated criminal proceedings against Nexo. Pre-trial proceedings against the crypto lender commenced on Sept. 29 last year, with law enforcement officials reportedly probing the company for alleged money laundering and sanctions violations.
“There is no evidence of criminal activity” regarding the carrying out of banking activity without a corresponding permit, the announcement details, as translated by Google. “Also, no evidence of money laundering was collected against the defendants, and no evidence of tax crimes or computer fraud was collected.” The prosecutor’s office stated:
On the basis of the established factual situation, the team of supervising prosecutors came to the conclusion that there was no evidence of committed crimes.
The case lists K. Kanchev, A. Trenchev, K. Metodiev, and T. Nikolov as defendants, alleging that they were involved in an organized criminal group formed for profit between 2018 and January 2023. Kanchev and Trenchev also faced charges of conducting banking transactions without proper authorization. The transactions involved lending and deposit activities in U.S. dollars, British pounds, and euros through the Nexo online platform.
The investigation included witness interviews, analyses of payment account movements, complex forensic and evaluation reports, and various investigative actions such as searches and seizures. Despite permission to spend 0,000 on an expert, supervising prosecutors considered it unnecessary.
The regulatory status of cryptocurrencies in Bulgaria also significantly influenced the prosecutors’ decision. Noting that Bulgaria lacks a specific legal framework for services involving crypto assets, the prosecutor’s office stated that activities conducted by Nexo are not regulated, and there is no requirement for permits, registration, or licensing.
“It can be concluded that the products offered by Nexo are not financial instruments. The provision of services to clients in relation to these products does not fall within the scope of investment services,” the prosecutor’s office detailed, elaborating:
Given that crypto assets are not currently financial instruments, their trading is also not subject to regulation.
Virtual currency is not recognized as a legal means of payment in Bulgaria, and its activities are not classified under Article 4 of the Law on Payment Services and Payment Systems, the prosecutor’s office clarified, noting: “The supervising prosecutors came to the conclusion that no crime had been committed and terminated the criminal proceedings.”
What do you think about Bulgarian prosecutors dropping criminal charges against crypto lender Nexo? Let us know in the comments section below.
No Evidence Hamas Received Significant Crypto Donations: Elliptic Says Data Has Been Misrepresented
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic says there is no evidence that Hamas has received significant volumes of cryptocurrency donations, emphasizing that crypto data it provides on the matter has been misrepresented. Noting that crypto accounts linked to Hamas have been seized or frozen, Elliptic says: “This illustrates the weakness of crypto as a terrorism fundraising tool. The transparency of the blockchain allows illicit funds to be traced, and in some cases linked to real-world identities.”
Hamas’ Crypto Amounts Raised ‘Tiny’ Compared to Other Funding Sources
Blockchain analysis provider Elliptic published a blog post on Wednesday to set the record straight regarding crypto crowdfunding by Hamas, the military organization currently at war with Israel. This clarification followed numerous media reports claiming that Hamas had raised significant funds in cryptocurrency, including an article in The Wall Street Journal titled “Hamas Militants Behind Israel Attack Raised Millions in Crypto.”
Elliptic emphasized:
There is no evidence to support the assertion that Hamas has received significant volumes of crypto donations.
The Wall Street Journal article has been referenced by various individuals, including Senator Elizabeth Warren and more than 100 U.S. lawmakers who jointly sent a letter to the White House and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, urging them to take action against crypto citing its use by Hamas. “In the months leading up to their brutal and horrific October 7th attack on Israel, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) raised millions of dollars in crypto — evading U.S. sanctions and funding their operations. Indeed, between August 2021 and this past June, the two groups raised over 0 million in crypto,” wrote Warren and her fellow lawmakers.
However, Elliptic stressed: “There is no evidence to suggest that crypto fundraising has raised anything close to this amount, and data provided by Elliptic and others has been misinterpreted.”
In order to clear up confusion, Elliptic said that it has “engaged with the Wall Street Journal to correct misinterpretations of the level of crypto fundraising by Hamas” and has been “in discussions with the office of Senator Warren to ensure that the relevant parties have a proper appreciation of the complexities and nuances of analyzing these wallets.” Noting that “A full understanding of blockchain analysis and the context of any analysis is needed when using these insights to draw conclusions,” Elliptic said:
We have spoken to representatives of the lead signatory, Senator Warren, as well as the authors of the Wall Street Journal article, to clarify this.
While acknowledging that “Over the past few years, Hamas has begun to experiment with cryptocurrency as a means to crowdfund from the public through social media,” Elliptic clarified: “The unique traceability of these assets has meant that the amounts raised remain tiny compared to other funding sources.”
Furthermore, the blockchain analytics company highlighted that various cryptocurrency wallets associated with Hamas have been seized, and centralized crypto exchanges are collaborating with law enforcement agencies to freeze accounts connected to illicit activities. “This illustrates the weakness of crypto as a terrorism fundraising tool. The transparency of the blockchain allows illicit funds to be traced, and in some cases linked to real-world identities,” the firm described.
Elliptic further detailed that since the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, the most prominent public crypto fundraising campaign has been operated by a pro-Hamas news organization, Gaza Now. However, the firm said only ,000 in cryptocurrency has been donated since Oct. 7, and much of this has been frozen. On Oct. 9, Gaza Now sent around ,000 of the donated cryptocurrency to an exchange, where it was promptly frozen, the firm added, noting that around ,000 in USDT donations were also frozen by Tether.
In contrast, much more funds have been raised to help people in Israel, the blockchain analytics firm additionally pointed out, stating:
Crypto fundraising for humanitarian causes in Israel is flourishing. For example, Crypto Aid Israel had received over 5,000 in crypto donations by October 19th to support those impacted by the attacks.
What do you think about the clarification by Elliptic about how much crypto Hamas had raised? Let us know in the comments section below.
Ripple Vs. SEC: XRP Showing Strength In The Legal Fight As New Evidence Arises
The returns on Ripple were promising in the past decade, but it largely missed out on significant crypto gains. However, it did succeed during the early parts of last year until April, when its value grew significantly higher than before, only to be replaced by other cryptocurrencies later in autumn, which had much better performances throughout that period.
XRP has been making lower highs since 2017, and the price is bearish. Other cryptocurrencies continued to make record highs until November 2021, but XRP’s price had grown slowly. During last month’s dip, XRP had slipped below , falling to .55. It met SMA200 (purple) on weekly charts, which provided support for a second time; then started bouncing higher again in January this year.
Related Reading | Representing Lawyer of XRP Holders Predict SEC’s Next Move As Ripple Price Hikes
XRP/USD is climbing higher, but buyers haven’t been able to push the price above 50 weeks SMA (yellow), which stands at .9 and acts as resistance in the top level for now; however, a jump from 055 did show some bullish signs since they gained around 60%. A week later, markets turned bearish again overall, but XRP holding onto its gains indicates that there could be more upsides left within rangebound periods.
XRP still green even all other major cryptos are red | Source: XRP/USD chart on Tradingview.com
XRP Fight Against SEC
The main reason XRP is falling behind the rest of the crypto market has been a legal battle that started more than one year ago, when SEC opened their case against Ripple, claiming it’s an investment contract. Everyone following this lawsuit will determine how blockchain technology should develop in America for future generations.
Ripple has faced many challenges in its lawsuit against the SEC. One recent twist was that judge Analisa Torres granted them permission to respond, which they did with fair notice of defense earlier this month.
Analysts Reviews On Ripple Fate
The end may be near for this case, which would mean greater appreciation in XRP’s price.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Plunges Below As Russia Has Reportedly Given Its Forces Order To Attack Ukraine
James Wo, founder, and CEO of DFG said in an email to CoinDesk;
We’ve seen in tech history that no matter the result of the trial, verdict or closed-door agreement, supporters regularly see the ending of a legal battle as a bullish sign. This increase could be the beginning of a bullish period for XRP if indeed the long-lasting trial comes to an end in the upcoming months.
Some people predict that XRP will lose favor among investors because there is now a newer, more popular payment token in the market.
Another statement by Vladimir Gorbunov, CEO of Crypterium, explains;
Ripple’s outlook remains questionable because market conditions have changed dramatically over the past few years. A large number of companies making similar solutions to Ripple. However, Ripple is the most popular service in the segment of interbank transactions.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com
NewsBTC
Bitcoin Pumps Whilst Google Interest Declines: Evidence of Institutions Buying?
Bitcoin is back above ,300 again after the price pumped from just over ,000 at the start of today to its current level of around ,325 at the time of writing. Interestingly, despite today’s price surge, interest in the number one crypto asset by market capitalisation appears to be down on popular search engine Google.
This could be evidence that it is not retail investors driving the current price action. One JP Morgan analyst believes that recent gains have indeed been down to institutions buying up Bitcoin.
Evidence Growing that Institutions are Hungry for Bitcoin
Bitcoin has been having a stellar 2019 so far. The leading crypto asset has surged around 150 percent year to day to reach a price of more than ,300. There has been no shortage of good news to persuade investors to take positions in Bitcoin recently either.
Numerous products have already, or are soon-to-be-launched, that are tailored to a wealthier class of investor, news that Microsoft will be building a digital identity platform using the Bitcoin blockchain, and the hope that Facebook’s stablecoin project will make it easier than every before for new money to enter the space are all likely catalysts that go some way to explaining the recent increase in price.
Despite Bitcoin prices growing enough in recent months for many analysts to declare a new bull market to be in session, interest in the search term “Bitcoin” on the world’s most popular search engine Google has actually dropped. Twitter user@BullOfCrypto speculated earlier than this could be an indication that the money entering the market of late is from institutions, rather than retail investors.
Pretty impressive that $BTC has grown from in the past month while Google searches for bitcoin have gone DOWN
This is not retail money moving the price
pic.twitter.com/2ifvivqSk5
— CryptoBull (@BullOfCrypto) June 17, 2019
Although lacking concrete evidence to support it, the theory seems to check out. If a new wave of retail interest was gripping the market, it would stand to reason that accompanying such buying pressure would be thousands of newcomers to the market requiring knowledge of what Bitcoin actually is, as well as how to buy and store it. Meanwhile, individual institutions have the kind of financial clout to seriously move a market without large numbers of new participants entering with the cash needed to drive prices up.
That said, supporting @BullOfCrypto’s speculations is recent evidence reported by ZeroHedge. According to the publication, JP Morgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note for clients that the Bitcoin and crypto market has “likely changed considerably… with a greater influence from institutional investors.” To arrive at this conclusion, JP Morgan has studied changes in trading volumes over the last two years since the last price peak.
If the conclusions drawn are correct, then it also means that the 2017 all-time high was reached almost exclusively under the steam of retail investors. If we really are looking at a renewed bull market that is being driven by institutions this time, there is no telling how much past the previous high water mark Bitcoin could surge.
Related Reading: Bakkt Clearing the Way For Institutional Investors Pouring into Bitcoin This Summer
Featured Image from Shutterstock.
The post Bitcoin Pumps Whilst Google Interest Declines: Evidence of Institutions Buying? appeared first on NewsBTC.
Former Wall Street Exec Tone Vays There Is No Evidence That the Crypto Winter Is Now Over
n Blockchain researcher and former JPMorgan exec Tone Vays is skeptical over whether the crypto winter is really overn
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
RAND Report: ‘Little to No Evidence” Terrorists are Using Cryptocurrencies
The post RAND Report: ‘Little to No Evidence” Terrorists are Using Cryptocurrencies appeared first on DCEBrief.
Is Apollo (APL) a Scam? Evidence Mounts to Suggest So
According to a lengthy Reddit post from earlier today, Apollo (APL) has all the hallmarks of a massive scam to enrich its creators. The allegations, coming from Reddit user RossyRoffle, state that there are many red flags with the project, suggesting that the “all-in one cryptocurrency” is nothing more than vaporware dressed up as ground-breaking tech.
The major points of contention in today’s post focus around the lack of development towards grandiose ambitions, an former alleged scam artist being behind the cryptocurrency project, a slew of fake news being sold to followers as fact, and a harsh policy of censorship in community groups for anyone discussing the claims made by those behind Apollo.
Apollo (APL) Comes Under Fire on a Variety of Fronts
Seemingly exasperated by the reported censorship experienced on Apollo’s community platforms, a Reddit user known as RossyRoffle has attacked the cryptocurrency for several reasons. The post from earlier today states that despite the grandiose Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP-killing claims of those behind Apollo, the project offers very little of substance.
On Apollo’s own website, visitors are presented with a slick video stating that Apollo is optimised for a variety of applications – be it token creation, private transfers, smart contract use, file sharing, multi-signature support, and a host of others. Basically, if you have ever heard of a cryptocurrency project claiming to have created something innovative, Apollo can do it – apparently.
RossyRoffle refutes all of this in their post. They state that Apollo is nothing more than a fork of NXT with a lower block time. There are some other “insignificant” code changes too but apparently these barely extend past name changes for existing functions of the more established NXT chain. The poster even goes on to highlight that the website itself was built using Wix – hinting at the lack of experience of those behind the alleged scam.
That’s not all, however. RossyRoffle states that the founders of APL are attempting to aggressively pump the price up to enrich themselves. Claims are cited that the platform will render XRP and ETH entirely obsolete. In addition, the poster provides some addresses to show how much APL the founders are dumping on the market as the price rises due to the “fear of missing out” created by those behind the operation.
“Here are some APL Founder-held addresses if you’d like to watch them get rich in real-time: APL-4BUY-KK5W-B3KC-DMHBM and APL-NZKH-MZRE-2CTT-98NPZ.”
Along with the grandiose claims of the project itself, fuelling this so-called “FOMO” is allegedly a programme of fake news and harsh censorship. The poster highlights completely unsubstantiated claims that the team has secured thousands of real-world buying locations. Those who question this on the official Telegram channel (and other platforms) are immediately banned.
This aggressive censorship apparently extends to other questions that seem to be genuinely seeking a better understanding of the APL technology, including:
- “Isn’t the privacy of this coin exactly the same as NXT? Can someone explain how it is any better?”
- “Why do you keep banning people for asking legitimate questions?”
- “How do you plan to implement sharding in Q1 when their is no code in the Github for it yet?”
- “You guys think the privacy of this coin is really better than Monero?”
The Reddit poster goes on to challenge their readers to join the Telegram group and ask a question. I tried and did not even get the opportunity to put anything to the team – presumably a result of a slew of requests to join the group following the original post:
Another of the issues highlighted in the post that creates an air of doubt around the project is the founder’s past. According to RossyRoffle, Steve McCullah previously launched a fake Kickstarter campaign to fund a documentary in South America in search of undiscovered dinosaur species. They go on to allege that McCullah disappeared after raising just sort of ,000.
Of course, cryptocurrency scams like those alleged above are nothing new and pump-and-dump schemes have become an industry norm for smaller cap coins. However, the major difference with this effort according to RossyRoffle is that everything about the project is fraudulent and the entire thing serves only as a vehicle to enrich its founders, rather than an orchestrated effort from a third-party group to pump up a tiny cap coin to make a quick buck.
Related Reading: Crypto Pump and Dump Schemes Encourage Traders to Play Digital Chicken
Featured Image from Shutterstock.
The post Is Apollo (APL) a Scam? Evidence Mounts to Suggest So appeared first on NewsBTC.