Maximilien De Hoop Cartier, a descendant of the family famous for their French luxury goods Cartier, has been indicted for his participation in a network that allegedly used several shell companies to launder drug trafficking money proceeds using USDT. Cartier and five Colombian individuals allegedly conspired to directly launder .5 million and used these shell […]
Bitcoin News
Report Reveals Hundreds of US Banks at Risk of Failure Amid High Interest Rate Environment
Following the dramatic bank failures last year and the recent collapse of Philadelphia’s Republic First Bank last week, an analysis by Klaros Group indicates that hundreds of U.S. banks are at risk of failure. The study reveals that smaller and regional banks are experiencing stress due to burdensome commercial real estate loans and the current […]
Bitcoin News
Venezuelan Petro Blockchain Faces Operational Difficulties, Hundreds of Wallets Allegedly Blocked
The blockchain of the petro, the Venezuelan official cryptocurrency asset, has been facing difficulties, halting on May 24, with block production restarting on May 27 only to stop again on May 28. Asonacrip, a local cryptocurrency association, also reported that hundreds of petro wallets were eliminated or blocked.
Venezuelan Petro Blockchain Halted
The blockchain of the petro, the official Venezuelan cryptocurrency, has allegedly been facing operational problems since last week. Asonacrip, a private association of crypto enthusiasts, issued a statement warning about the issue, stating that the Petro chain had stopped its block generation on May 24, affecting the functionality of the cryptocurrency asset.
In a joint statement with Cryptoland.vzla, a crypto education-focused group, Asonacrip stated:
Last Wednesday (May 24) at 07:00 in the morning, suddenly and without warning, the Petro Blockchain was paralyzed, making transactions between different wallets impossible.
However, the Petro blockchain started to produce blocks again on May 27, when it issued just four blocks before halting again on May 28.
Hundreds of Wallets Blocked
The joint statement also alerted about a massive block and elimination of petro wallets, which occurred when the chain was first halted. On this, the joint statement explains:
A few hours later, also without warning, accounts of already hundreds of users of the PATRIA platform were blocked and deleted, most of them belonging to active members of this community.
Mario Silva, a Venezuelan journalist and deputy of the Venezuelan Legislative Assembly, also alerted about the issue via social networks about a possible exploit, stating that many users had their wallets blocked with no explanation.
Other reports stated that withdrawals in fiat currency were also blocked since the intervention of Sunacrip, more than two months ago. At the time of writing, neither Sunacrip nor the petro official support account has given updates on the problems reported.
Sunacrip, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency watchdog, is under the temporary management of an intervention board after its head, Joselit Ramirez, was arrested for alleged participation in a multi-billion dollar crypto corruption scheme.
Also, as a result of this ongoing investigation, Bitcoin miners that had legally registered their companies with the institution have been required to halt operations until further notice since March 24. This has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for the sector.
What do you think about the operational problems of the Petro blockchain and the alleged massive block of petro wallets? Tell us in the comment section below.
Sushiswap Smart Contract Bug Results in Over $3M in Losses; Head Chef Says Hundreds of ETH Recovered
According to several reports, a bug introduced to the decentralized exchange (dex) protocol Sushiswap’s smart contract has resulted in more than million in losses. The blockchain and smart contract security firm Peckshield explained the exploited contract was “deployed in multiple blockchains.”
Dex Platform Sushiswap Suffers From Smart Contract Exploit
Over the weekend, the dex platform Sushiswap saw its RouteProcess02 contract exploited and then distributed across various blockchain networks. Blockchain security firm Certik published an alert after discovering the exploit. The company Peckshield also updated the crypto community via Twitter, noting that Sushiswap’s “RouterProcessor2 contract has an approve-related bug.” It has also been reported that the victim was a well-known crypto advocate called Sifu, who reportedly lost 1,800 ether.
Sifu may not have been the only victim, as Certik’s alert mentions that a few USDC users may have been affected. “We have detected suspicious activity on [0x15d], which is a malicious router,” Certik tweeted. “Revoke permissions if you have approved this router to spend your tokens. Stay safe. Multiple users who had approved the malicious contract have seen their USDC being transferred to [0x29e]. The wallet has taken about ,000 in the last two hours,” the company added.
A developer known as 0xngmi has detailed that the exploit should only be problematic for those who used Sushiswap during the last four days. “Only users impacted by Sushiswap hack should be those that swapped on Sushiswap in the last 4 days. If you did so, revert approvals ASAP or move your funds in the affected wallet to a new wallet,” 0xngmi tweeted. Sushiswap’s head chef Jared Grey also confirmed the exploit and later detailed that “recovery efforts were underway.”
“We’ve secured a large portion of affected funds in a whitehat security process. If you have performed a whitehat recovery please contact security@sushi.com for next steps,” Grey said at 9:42 a.m. Eastern Time on April 9. “We’ve confirmed recovery of more than 300 ETH from Coffeebabe of Sifu’s stolen funds. We’re in contact with Lido’s team regarding 700 more ETH,” Grey added. Sushiswap’s CTO, Matthew Lilley, followed up later in the day and said that there are currently no issues with using the Sushiswap dex platform.
“There is no risk at this time with using Sushi Protocol, and the UI. All exposure to RouterProcessor2 has been removed from the front end, and all LPing / current swap activity is safe to do,” the Sushiswap CTO explained. “We do ask that all users double-check their approvals, and if an address within this list below has an allowance for any of your tokens to please unapprove as soon as you can,” Lilley added. Just recently, Grey told the community that the Sushiswap team received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
What do you think can be done to prevent smart contract bugs like this in the future? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
How Bitcoin of America’s ATM Host Program has Helped Hundreds of Local Businesses
The flagship cryptocurrency, Bitcoin has once again proven itself to be the most valuable asset as it continues to maintain a bullish trend after briefly breaching the ,000 mark. The rising price of the digital asset combined with the need for alternative investments amid the current tumultuous market conditions has increased interest in Bitcoin among new as well as seasoned investors.
As more people look for ways to purchase Bitcoin, one company — Bitcoin of America is not only making it easier for the buyers but also encouraging local businesses to become part of the crypto revolution. Bitcoin of America is a leader in Bitcoin ATMs and is roping in the all-too-familiar mom-and-pop stores and local businesses, thereby offering users convenient access to digital currency right in their neighborhood.
Meanwhile, businesses that are joining Bitcoin of America’s network get an opportunity to be on a global map alongside other Bitcoin ATM locations while securing for themselves an additional source of revenue. Businesses signing up on the platform will get to host the crypto ATM machines on their premises. They can also earn as much as 0 per month in transaction fees, which is in addition to the allocated advertising budgets from the company. Currently, there are 600 Bitcoin of America BTC ATMs in the United States. The network is growing fast, adding anywhere between 80 to 100 new locations to the list each month.
Getting Started
Signing up onto the Bitcoin of America network is an easy process that requires the business owner to just fill a form. Once all the relevant details are provided and credentials verified, the company will onboard them and provide business owners with the necessary equipment and know-how to support customers looking to purchase Bitcoin. The partner will just have to provide a space for Bitcoin of America’s ATM along with access to the power supply and internet connection.
Any necessary licenses, additional infrastructure, and even maintenance of the machines will be handled by Bitcoin of America itself.
An Invaluable Addition to Small Businesses
Most of the small businesses are limited to catering to the needs of their own community, usually with a dedicated set of customers. Under these conditions, they have a limited scope for expansion, and any intention to earn additional income is generally accompanied by the need for capital. But by hosting the Bitcoin of America ATMs, they can potentially leverage the increasing demand for bitcoin at no additional cost.
They also get an opportunity to piggyback on the advertising and publicity campaigns for the Bitcoin ATM, run at the company’s cost across multiple channels to increase footfalls to their main business. They will also be offering their community, an easy and safe way to buy bitcoin through a FinCEN regulated crypto company. In the end, they will also play a key role in further expanding the global cryptocurrency community.
Hundreds of Institutions Are Already Investing in Crypto: Coinbase CEO
In an extensive blog post about potential major trends in the cryptocurrency space in 2020, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said that hundreds of institutional investors are already investing in the crypto market.
Throughout 2019, with the launch of Bakkt, much of the year’s narrative surrounded the entrance of institutions into the crypto sector.
According to the CEO of one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges globally, institutions are already actively investing in the emerging asset class and the trend is likely to continue throughout 2020.
Will institutions further bolster the crypto market in 2020?
Prior to 2019, institutional investors only really had Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) by Grayscale and CME Group’s futures market to invest in bitcoin.
There were not many options available to high net worth individuals, funds, and investment firms to invest in the crypto market securely with insurance and custodians.
Starting mid-2019, a growing number of exchanges and regulated service providers have started to provide custodial solutions targeting institutions. It led to the establishment of a more efficient and stable environment for institutions to invest in cryptocurrency.
Armstrong said:
“We’ve already started to see small institutions enter the cryptocurrency space. Hundreds have joined Coinbase Custody in the past 18 months. I would expect this rapid growth to continue in 2020, with larger and larger institutions coming on board. Eventually just about every financial institution will have some sort of cryptocurrency operation, and most funds will keep a portion of their assets in cryptocurrencies, partially due to the uncorrelated returns.”
Both Bakkt and cryptocurrency exchanges offering custodial solutions are yet to see large volumes, mostly because it takes time for institutional infrastructure to become more established.
“Bakkt will be likely first a trickle and then a flood. The reality is that most regulated futures contracts get low adoption on day1 simply b/c not all futures brokers are ready to clear it, many ppl want to wait and see, the tickers are not even populated on risk systems, etc,” Three Arrows Capital CEO Su Zhu said.
Independent funds seeing more institutional inflow
Despite a noticeable decrease in deal value in the latter half of 2019, in October of last year, Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Digital said that the firm’s crypto fund secured million from institutional investors.
Morgan Creek Digital crypto fund raised million in October 2019 from institutions (Source: Pomp Twitter)
Independent crypto funds, on top of exchange custodial platforms and futures markets, seeing an inflow of capital from institutions could be another catalyst that adds to an increase in institutional adoption in the upcoming 12 months. The post appeared first on NewsBTC.
NewsBTC
Scammers Move Hundreds of Bitcoin to Exchanges; Is a Dump Inbound?
Over the past couple of days, investors have grown fearful regarding the possibility of a massive Chinese Ponzi scam dumping the significant amount of Bitcoin (BTC) that they hold in wallets onto the markets, which may have contributed to the recent downwards pressure experienced by the entire crypto markets.
Now, new data suggests that a small portion of the scammer’s Bitcoin has already been moved to exchanges, which may signal that a massive influx of selling pressure is imminent.
Chinese Ponzi Scammers Wield Significant Power Over the Markets With Massive Bitcoin Holdings
Earlier this week, investors were thrown into a slight panic after Dovey Wan, a founding partner at PrimitiveCrypto, elucidated the fact that one of the largest Chinese Ponzi schemes – which has resulted in multiple arrests – has led to a handful of scammers holding a total of 70,000 Bitcoin and 800,000 Ethereum in their wallets.
“JUST IN as per sir @loomdart‘s request, this thread is abt the on-going sells off made by PLUS Token, the biggest Chinese PONZI which scammed ~70K $BTC + ~ 800K $ETH,” she explained.
JUST IN
as per sir @loomdart ‘s request, this thread is abt the on-going sells off made by PLUS Token, the biggest Chinese PONZI which scammed ~70K $BTC + ~ 800K $ETH
I mentioned it briefly in my last Coindesk oped but worth additional attention as it may cause further sells pic.twitter.com/uIjgrzwHET
— Dovey Wan
![]()
(@DoveyWan) August 14, 2019
Importantly, the core members of this scam have been caught and arrested by the police, but the cryptocurrency that they stole from unsuspecting investors has not been recovered by police forces.
Importantly, a recent report from Bloomberg elucidated that, according to research from TokenAnalyst, it doesn’t appear that any of their addresses are exchange owned.
“It doesn’t look like any of these addresses are exchange owned. We’ll keep an eye on this to see if they do move the 100s of millions into exchanges at some point,” Sid Shekhar, the co-founder of TokenAnalyst, explained to Bloomberg.
Are Ponzi Scheme’s BTC Beginning to Move to Exchanges?
Despite the aforementioned data regarding the PlusToken group’s Bitcoin not having been moved to any exchanges, Dovey Wan noted in a tweet from earlier today that it now appears that 663 BTC have been moved to a Houbi Exchange wallet, while an additional 540 Bitcoin has been moved to a Bittrex Exchange wallet.
“PlusToken fund flow by @peckshield so far 540 $BTC has gone into @BittrexExchange and 663 $BTC has gone into @HuobiGlobal,” she noted while referencing the below graphic.
PlusToken fund flow by @peckshield so far 540 $BTC has gone into @BittrexExchange and 663 $BTC has gone into @HuobiGlobal
Huge shout out to the team at PeckShield doing this research for free with their engineering cycle pic.twitter.com/gK2XwTn619
— Dovey Wan
![]()
(@DoveyWan) August 16, 2019
Although it remains unclear as to whether or not this Bitcoin will soon be dumped onto the markets, it is certainly a risk that investors should monitor closely, as it could lead to a significant sell-off in the future.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The post Scammers Move Hundreds of Bitcoin to Exchanges; Is a Dump Inbound? appeared first on NewsBTC.
Fidelity Exec: Hundreds of Institutions Interested in Crypto Investment
At long last, it seems that the long-awaited institutional herd is finally arriving on the crypto industry’s doorsteps. Case in point, a Wall Street powerhouse has launched its Bitcoin-focused division amid institutional clamoring for cryptocurrencies and related innovations. But there’s still a ways to go in this subsector.
Fidelity Soft Launches Crypto Division
As we reported in NewsBTC’s most recent “Crypto Tidbits” segment, Fidelity Investments, a Boston-headquartered finance giant, has soft-launched the Digital Asset Services (FDAS) branch to a small audience.
In a number of interviews with cryptocurrency outlets this week, Tom Jessop, a former Goldman Sachs executive turned head of FDAS, explained that his brainchild’s offerings are live for a select list of “eligible clients.” He adds that at the moment, the platform, centered around custodial services and trade execution, only supports Bitcoin, and will be staving off its verdict on Ethereum due to impending blockchain upgrades.
Related Reading: London Stock Exchange Invests Million in Crypto Bond, Rapid Institutional Adoption
Regardless, many have still seen this as a monumental step in the right direction when it comes to institutional players in the cryptocurrency realm. The Crypto Dog, Dan Held, Alec Ziupsnys, among other industry commentators have expressed that the establishment of FDAS is one of the primary reasons why they’re more bullish on Bitcoin than ever before.
We are live with a select group of eligible clients and will continue rolling out slowly. Our solutions are focused on the needs of hedge funds, family offices, pensions, endowments, other institutional investors. More on our project: https://t.co/EkJ2pWJt2Y #DCBlockchain
— Fidelity Digital Assets (@DigitalAssets) March 7, 2019
Speaking with The Block, Jessop hints that FDAS’ launch comes as non-retail investors have begun to express interest in Bitcoin and other digital assets en-masse. The Wall Street veteran notes that 20% of the 450 institutions (hedge funds, family offices, financial advisors, venture groups, crypto-native companies, etc.) his firm surveyed have some semblance of a cryptocurrency investment. As the survey’s sample size was diverse, it could be argued that this 20% figure can be extrapolated to Fidelity’s tens of thousands of entities that make up its institutional clientele.
This means that while there may be thousands of institutional players in the space, there are even more on the sidelines, as they wait for optimal market conditions to down the crypto red pill.
So, what exactly will push more participation from incumbents of the legacy world?
Regulation To Spark Adoption
Regulation, that’s what. Bitcoin diehards focused on decentralization and intermediation may often tout the merits of this space remaining largely unregulated, but others claim that government involvement is mandatory in growing this ecosystem.
Tom Jessop acknowledges this, telling The Block’s Frank Chaparro that the lack of regulatory uncertainty, likely in regards to market structure and integrity, is a “blocker” that deters many in the aforementioned subset of investors from taking the plunge, so to speak. Jessop isn’t the first industry insider to have touched on this matter.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Chicago Mercantile Exchange chief executive Terry Duffy explained that the “bottom line” is that until global governments start to welcome cryptocurrencies, whether it be Bitcoin, XRP, Ethereum, or even JP Morgan’s own digital asset, it will be “very difficult for the major commercials to come into this space” in a gung-ho fashion.
Thus, Duffy determined that for cryptocurrencies, or any other nascent market for that matter, to succeed, the ecosystem surrounding them will need to gain approval from governments.
With Starbucks and other mainstays of the non-crypto world looking to delve into this space, many believe that it is only a matter of time before regulators, namely the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), begin to establish an extensive list of rules that will dictate the future of cryptocurrencies.
The Herd Is Coming
In spite of the shortcomings in the regulatory realm, it seems that the herd is still well on its way.
Swissquote, a Swiss bank valued at 8 million, recently revealed that it would be partnering with Crypto Storage, an industry startup based in the heart of Zug. This deal allows the organization to offer cryptocurrency custodial services to its clients, making Swissquote one of the first financial institutions to allow the storage of Bitcoin via its platform.
Across the pond, Tagomi, a Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency startup focused on providing prime broker-dealer services, has just raised a large wad of cash. Per previous reports from this outlet, the upstart, founded by Greg Tusar, the former head of electronic trading at Goldman Sachs, raised million in its second round, from investors like the Yale University-backed Paradigm and Pantera Capital.
A crowd is forming in front of the cryptocurrency stage, but will institutions take to the stage?
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The post Fidelity Exec: Hundreds of Institutions Interested in Crypto Investment appeared first on NewsBTC.
WSJ Hundreds of Crypto Projects Show Signs of Plagiarism, Fraud and Improbable Returns
n A recent study by the WSJ has revealed that 16 percent of nearly 3,300 cryptocurrency projects showed signs of improbable returns, identity theft and plagiarismn
CryptScout #BitFeed RSS – Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency News 24/7
Wall Street Journal Investigates Hundreds of Fraudulent ICO Projects
The Wall Street Journal reviewed 1,450 ICO presentation and found 271 one of them show indications of being scams.
Initial coin offerings are a popular and potently succesfull way for startups to fund their companies growth. They are also essentially unregulated and becoming more and more popular for scammers who create fraudulent sites based on stolen information and little else to lure unsavvy investors into giving them their money.
271 ICOs Exhibit Red Flags
As reported by The Wall Street Journal which performed an exhaustive study of 1,450 ICO sites and projects 271 of them have red flags indicating the project is fraudulent. These red flags include guaranteed no risk returns, extremely high percentage returns, and celebrity endorsements. Of the projects that the journal singled out as suspicious most were found using plagiarized texts, images of team members and or investors taken from stock photography banks, and in 111 cases entire sections of company white papers copy and pasted.
As an example, the Journal focused on a project called Denaro, an online payment service, and its cofounder “Jeremy Boker”. The project is described in investor documents to have a “power house” team who had already raised over 8 million in funds. In fact, Mr. Boker’s photo was a stolen image and no other member of that “power house” team could be identified. Boker turns out to be Jenish Mirani, a banker in Poland who posted his picture on a personal website and was shocked to hear of its reincarnation.
Still, those 271 ICO’s identified as having red flags have garnered over $ 1 billion in investors money according to a review of company statements and online transaction records performed by the WSJ. While some of the projects are still raising money others have shut down or have been frozen by the Securities Exchange Commission, the federal regulatory body which has been tasked with investigating ICOs.
ICOs Have Raised Billion
ICOs have come into the mainstream consciousness since the 2017 rise of Bitcoin’s price brought on an increase in cryptocurrency traders. Since 2017 the SEC estimates ICO’s have raised billion in revenue. This kind of money generates a market for fraud which has lead the SEC to create a warning to investors that many ICO’s may be violating securities regulations or be outright scams.
The regulatory body even launched its own fake ICO website complete with red flag promises of high returns, a line up of fake celebrity endorsements and a “power house” team of its own. The site brings users to a .gov page that explains the way ICO scams work and how to avoid losing money in the cryptocurrency market.
As for Denaro, according to the WSJ article, it has reemerged as something called Pluto Coin with a similar website and an identical white paper. Even Mr. Mirani’s photo has been recycled only this time he has lost his co-founder status.
The post Wall Street Journal Investigates Hundreds of Fraudulent ICO Projects appeared first on NewsBTC.