Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino has responded to remarks made by Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, branding him as an “uninformed CEO” and accusing him of fostering uncertainty about stablecoin USDT amid a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation into his company. In reply, Garlinghouse clarified that his comments were not an attack on Tether but […]
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Donald Trump Calls BTC ‘an Additional Form of Currency’ — Says ‘I Sometimes Will Let People Pay Through Bitcoin’
Former U.S. President Donald Trump says bitcoin is an “additional form of currency,” emphasizing that the crypto has taken on a life of its own. He also lets people pay for his merchandise with cryptocurrencies. “There has been a lot of use of that, and I’m not sure that I’d want to take it away […]
Bitcoin News
Donald Trump Acknowledges Bitcoin’s Popularity — Says BTC Has Taken on ‘a Life of Its Own’ and ‘I Can Live With It’
U.S. presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump has acknowledged the growing popularity of bitcoin, stating that “a lot of people are doing it” and the crypto has taken on “a life of its own.” Trump further shared: “More and more I’m seeing people wanting to pay bitcoin and you’re seeing something that’s interesting so […]
Bitcoin News
Robert Kiyosaki Predicts BTC Will Soon Hit $150K as SEC Approves Bitcoin ETFs — Says ‘I Will Be Buying More Bitcoin’
Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has predicted that the price of bitcoin will hit 0,000 “soon,” as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He emphasized that he will be buying more bitcoin. Kiyosaki has issued diverse bitcoin price predictions, with his most eye-catching one reaching a staggering million.
Robert Kiyosaki Says He Will Buy More Bitcoin
The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has insisted that the price of bitcoin will hit 0,000 soon. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries.
Commenting on the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Kiyosaki said he is glad he bought bitcoin years ago. He emphasized that the price of bitcoin will soon reach 0,000. The famous author said:
Bitcoin ETF. Yay. Glad I bought years ago. Bitcoin to 0K soon … I will be buying more gold, silver, and bitcoin with fake dollars.
He also noted: “Gold to the moon as central banks buy, store, and never sell. Silver to crash as silver stackers sell to pay bills, caused by rising inflation. Great news for silver stackers. Time to buy more as silver crashes. It’s all good news except for losers who save fake fiat U.S. dollars.”
The renowned author often refers to fiat currencies as fake money. He previously explained that when President Richard Nixon removed the U.S. dollar from the gold standard in 1971, “the U.S. dollar became fake money.” He clarified that “This is because rather than being tied to real money,” such as gold, “it was tied to the ‘full faith and credit’ of the United States.”
Kiyosaki has long been recommending gold, silver, and bitcoin. He recently said bitcoin is the best protection against hyperinflation. The Rich Dad Poor Dad author has made a number of bullish predictions about the price of BTC, ranging from 5,000 in the near term to million in the event of a global economic crisis. In February, he projected that the price of bitcoin would reach 0,000 by 2025, while gold could rise to ,000 and silver could reach 0 within the same timeframe.
Meanwhile, other big names have also made some bullish BTC price predictions. Venture capitalist Tim Draper sees the crypto hitting 0,000 this year, while Standard Chartered and Alliance Bernstein both expect it to reach 0,000 by 2025, fueled by the recent spot bitcoin ETF approvals. Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood also anticipates a significant price increase after the ETFs launch.
What do you think about the statements by Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki? Let us know in the comments section below.
Elon Musk: ‘I Don’t Spend a Lot of Time Thinking About Cryptocurrency’
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, Spacex, chairman of X, and the wealthiest man alive, has declared he doesn’t spend “a lot of time” thinking about cryptocurrency. In a recent X Space hosted by Cathie Wood, CEO of Ark Invest, the self-proclaimed “Dogefather” stated he had more interest in the concept of money and the elements surrounding it.
Elon Musk Is Not Much Into Crypto Anymore
Elon Musk, who had ostensibly been very interested in Bitcoin, declared he was not into crypto anymore. In an X Space hosted by Cathie Wood, CEO of the fund management firm Ark Invest, Musk was asked about his opinion on the future of Bitcoin and its influence on global financial markets.
Musk answered by showing his disinterest in the crypto issue. He stated:
I have to say, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about cryptocurrency. Hardly any at all.
Nonetheless, the wealthiest man in the world stressed that he was interested in money and its definition, stating that he thought about it as “a database of resource allocation,” establishing similarities between network concepts like latency, noise, congestion, and packet loss with money-related concepts.
Musk explained that fiat currency was “actually fine” if it had a predictable supply, provided that governments don’t abuse the privilege to create more money.
Musk’s recent disinterest in crypto contradicts his former actions, having supported Bitcoin and Dogecoin publicly several times and calling himself the “Dogefather.”
Also, Tesla started receiving bitcoin for payments back in March 2021, only to stop accepting it in May 2021 due to the energy footprint of Bitcoin. At the time, Musk stated that he would start accepting bitcoin “when there’s confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend.” Tesla still owns a bitcoin stash even after selling 75% of its holdings in Q2 2022.
Recently, he has distanced himself from crypto token issuance, declaring that none of his companies would ever issue a cryptocurrency.
What do you think about Musk’s disinterest in crypto? Tell us in the comments section below.
Vitalik Buterin: ‘I Haven’t Sold ETH for Personal Gain Since 2018’
Vitalik Buterin has dismissed reports that he recently sold his crypto holdings and claimed to have not “sold ether for personal gain since 2018.” Buterin suggested to his followers that the reports often mistake his transfer of digital assets to charitable organizations as sales of his digital assets.
Transfers to Charitable Organizations
Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of the Ethereum blockchain, has dismissed suggestions that he recently liquidated part of his digital asset holdings. In a post on the decentralized social network Warpcast, Buterin told his followers to ignore reports which mistakenly conclude that his donations to charitable organizations are sales of crypto assets.
The remarks by Buterin came just days after media reports claimed that Kanro, a charity affiliated with the Ethereum co-founder, had moved 15.43 million USDC coins to a multi-signature wallet. In fact, as indicated by data, Kanro made two transfers, one to Coinbase (500,000 USDC coins) and one to Gemini (14.93 million).
Last year @CryptoRelief_ led by @sandeepnailwal allocated 0m to Covid research projects I wanted to fund
Sandeep and I discussed and jointly concluded these and other projects are high-impact and need follow through grants. Hence we decided to put 0m more to these projects
— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) June 8, 2023
In his June 8, 2023, post on X (formerly Twitter), Buterin, who described Kanro as his “entity,” spoke of his desire to fund Covid research projects. At the time, Buterin revealed that Crypto Relief, a community-run fund, had “put in 90M USDC from the original $SHIB donation.” He then pledged to donate “10M of his own funds.”
‘Clickbait’ Allegations
However, in his Oct. 17 post on Warpcast, the co-founder claimed not to have sold his ETH holdings in the past five years. Buterin said:
“If you see an article saying ‘Vitalik sends XXX ETH to [exchange],’ it’s not actually me selling, it’s almost always me donating to some charity or nonprofit or other project, and the recipient selling because, well, they have to cover expenses. I haven’t ‘sold’ ETH for personal gain since 2018.”
Reacting to Buterin’s post, some Warpcast users agreed with him that most media reports have incorrectly characterized the donations as disposals. Others accused the media of deliberately producing inaccurate reports just so they can generate traffic to their sites. However, one user implied in his post that Buterin had in fact admitted to indirectly selling a portion of his ETH holdings.
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
‘I Won’t Tell if You Don’t’ — SEC Unearths Alleged Scheme by Do Kwon to Fabricate Terra Transactions
In the wake of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) call to depose Terraform Labs creator and former CEO Do Kwon, the SEC unveiled an alleged exchange between him and his former associate Daniel Shin. The ex-Terra boss reportedly claimed he could fabricate transactions on the Terra blockchain to render them authentic and accrue fees, further penning that he could strive to render the doctored transactions “indiscernible.”
‘I Can Just Create Fake Transactions’ — SEC Publishes Leaked Chat Between Kwon and Shin
Court filings submitted by the SEC show a purported conversation between the Terraform Labs founder and former CEO Do Kwon and his business partner the former CEO of Chai, Daniel Shin. “Kwon perpetrated a scheme to fabricate Chai transactions on the Terraform blockchain to make it appear more active, all to dupe investors,” the SEC filing claims.
The U.S. securities regulator added:
For instance, in an extensive private chat between Kwon and Daniel Shin2 during the early stages of Chai and Terraform’s formation and partnership, Kwon details how he intended to use Chai to create fake transactions on the Terra blockchain, which would appear real and generate fees.
The alliance forged between Terra and Chai sparked considerable excitement upon its unveiling on June 11, 2019, with the company elucidating that the pact ushered Terra into South Korea’s TMON, a bustling e-commerce hub retailing a vast array of products from electronics and fashion to home decor and gifts.
The conversation allegedly held between Kwon and Shin, marked May 9, 2019, sees Kwon purportedly saying, “I can just create fake transactions that look real, which will generate fees.”
Within the disclosed dialogue, Shin probes the likelihood of discovery concerning the authenticity of these transactions. Answering the query, Kwon allegedly affirms, “I will try my best to make it indiscernible.”
Subsequent to persuading Shin into endorsing the scheme under a veil of confidentiality — a pact sealed with a playful ‘I won’t tell if you don’t,’ Shin seemingly proposes a smaller-scale trial to “see what happens.”
Recently, following the SEC’s initiative to depose Kwon, his legal representatives outlined the task as “impossible,” spotlighting his detention in Montenegro. The SEC’s legal team contests the stance of Kwon’s counsel, emphasizing the necessity of his interrogation.
“Currently, the SEC is being denied its fundamental right to gather the relevant facts because it has not had an opportunity to depose the most critical witness in this case, who has, through counsel, actively conducted his own discovery from the SEC and third parties,” the SEC document articulates.
The peculiar entanglement between Terra and Chai garnered speculation in the aftermath of the ecosystem’s downfall. Adding fuel to the fire, a whistleblower going by the alias “Fatman” unveiled a thread alleging Kwon morphed Chai into his “personal money laundering machine.”
“All he had to do was create the illusion of retail demand and then publicize the narrative that KRT was being used everywhere,” penned the whistleblower on May 28, 2022.
What do you think about the alleged conversation between Shin and Kwon? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Bitcoin ETFs: When Will the SEC Say ‘I Do?’
While bitcoin enthusiasts anxiously await the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision on Blackrock’s spot bitcoin ETF proposal, it’s worth delving into the bigger picture.
The following opinion editorial was written by Joseph Collement, General Counsel at Bitcoin.com.
Spot Bitcoin ETF: American Investors Left Waiting as SEC Procrastinates
The rise of cryptocurrency has reverberated globally, presenting a financial revolution that many American investors feel they have been side-stepped from joining. The crypto market’s rapid expansion, coupled with increasing investor interest, has not yet convinced the SEC to approve a spot bitcoin ETF. Simultaneously, other nations have welcomed such ETFs, leading to profitable returns for investors and solidifying their position in this burgeoning market.
Take Canada, for instance. The Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC), approved by the Canadian Securities Administrators in February 2021, yielded over 200% returns in its first year of operation. This outstanding performance placed it amongst the most successful ETFs within the Canadian market. Similarly, the 21Shares bitcoin ETP (ABTC) found favor with the Swiss stock exchange in December 2021, securing strong returns of 162% and outpacing traditional financial instruments in the same timeframe.
The SEC did provide a glimmer of hope in 2021, greenlighting the first “long bitcoin” futures contract ETF (BITO) and its “short bitcoin” counterpart (BITI). However, these options lack the direct access and cost efficiency provided by a spot Bitcoin ETF, forcing investors to grapple with the additional costs and leverage associated with futures contract ETFs.
The SEC’s consistent refusal to allow a spot bitcoin ETF seems contradictory, given that its concerns about market manipulation also apply to traditional markets. Additionally, the absence of a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S. has pushed retail investors towards unregulated exchanges, increasing their susceptibility to fraud and cybersecurity threats.
So, what are the underlying reasons for the SEC’s denial of a spot bitcoin ETF, beyond the justifications provided in their official refusal notices?
Some speculate that known anti-crypto U.S. law markers may be putting pressure on the SEC to delay a spot bitcoin ETF. After all, an ETF approval would confer a sense of legitimacy to bitcoin (BTC), promoting its image as a mainstream financial asset.
Additionally, the introduction of a spot bitcoin ETF could unintentionally lead Americans towards altcoins, which the SEC categorizes as securities. It could also familiarize them with the concept of self-custody—a notion that, understandably, doesn’t sit well with the government.
Ultimately, the SEC’s hesitant approach towards cryptocurrency begins to resemble the well-known tale of “the boy who cried wolf.” As more countries adopt cryptocurrency and demonstrate its worth as a viable investment opportunity, it’s high time the SEC ceases its procrastination and allows American investors to partake in this financial revolution.
What are your thoughts on the SEC’s reluctance to approve a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S.? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Former SEC Chair Jay Clayton on US Regulator’s New Enforcement Ethos: ‘I Think That’s Problematic’
Jay Clayton, former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), has revealed his stance on the recently implemented enforcement strategy of U.S. regulators. In an interview on CNBC, Clayton stated that the SEC’s strategy of bringing myriad cases to court against U.S. corporations was problematic “at a 30,000-foot level.”
Jay Clayton Criticizes SEC’s Case Volume Strategy
Jay Clayton, former chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), voiced his concerns with the new “ethos” of U.S. regulators, which involves bringing many cases to court, even those they think won’t succeed. In a recent interview on CNBC, Clayton referred to this enforcement strategy as a “fundamental shift” from how Americans view the role of the government.
About this new strategic approach, Clayton stated:
I don’t want to be in a place where I know the government is going to bring cases they think they are going to lose; imagine you are the person that is subject to that case.
Furthermore, Clayton declared that when agencies have the power of the state, they are “supposed to only bring cases and only make rules you think are going to pass judicial muster.”
U.S. Enforcement Strategy Is ‘Problematic’
Clayton also noted how state agencies believe that if they are not losing in courts, it can be perceived as if they have failed to fulfill their role as regulators, and how this can present problems for companies involved in these cases.
He explained:
What you are hearing from the leaders of the regulatory organizations is if we’re not losing cases, if we’re not being pushed back on by the courts we’re not doing enough … At a 30,000-foot level, I think that’s problematic.
Cameron Winklevoss, a co-founder of Gemini, a U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange that is facing a lawsuit by the SEC “for the unregistered offer and sale of securities to retail investors through the Gemini Earn crypto asset lending program,” brought Clayton’s statements to the crypto space, stating:
Former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton describes the new and deeply un-American ethos of the SEC under Gary Gensler — if we’re not losing cases, we aren’t suing enough businesses. This is a total abuse of power.
Previously, Clayton has criticized how some enforcement actions are carried out by the SEC, stating these matters should be approached with more “nuance.”
What do you think about Jay Clayton’s views of the SEC’s enforcement ethos against companies? Tell us in the comment section below.
US Senator Ted Cruz: ‘I Like BTC for the Same Reason the Chinese Communist Govt Doesn’t Like BTC’
United States Senator Ted Cruz has said he remains “incredibly bullish on bitcoin” which he described as the “alpha in the crypto sphere.” According to Cruz, people are attracted to bitcoin because they see it as a hedge against inflation and also as an “important check” against government spending.
Bitcoin Is Still the ‘Most Dominant’
United States Senator Ted Cruz has said he is “incredibly bullish on bitcoin” and he still believes the “insight that led to its creation is still extraordinary.” In his remarks at an event organized by the Bitcoin Policy Institute, Cruz insisted bitcoin is the “alpha in the crypto sphere” because it came first and “is the most dominant one.”
The remarks by Cruz, a Republican from Texas, came at a time when the Biden administration has upped the ante in its fight against the crypto industry. As has been reported by Bitcoin.com News since the start of 2023, U.S. officials and agencies have targeted crypto entities as part of the so-called Operation Chokepoint 2.0. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charges have ranged from illegally selling securities to American citizens to promoting these without the requisite permissions.
“I am incredibly bullish on #Bitcoin.” – Senator @TedCruz pic.twitter.com/595jRKSwna
— Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) April 27, 2023
In response to the crackdown which is being spearheaded by the SEC, Republican senators including Cruz have slammed the regulatory body’s chairperson Gary Gensler. Others like the pro-crypto U.S. Senator Tom Emmer claimed that Gensler’s actions are “pushing innovation into the hands of a communist country.” Senator Cynthia Lummis, a BTC advocate and investor, also voiced her displeasure with the SEC’s crypto regulation approach.
BTC a Hedge Against Inflation
Meanwhile, in his address at the Bitcoin Policy Institute event, Cruz explained why he and many others are attracted to bitcoin.
“One of the attractions to bitcoin is as a hedge against inflation and particularly when you have irresponsible politicians in Washington that spend money like drunken sailors,” Cruz said.
Cruz added that the printing of trillions of dollars over the past two years had led to what he described as “significant inflation.” According to Cruz, since BTC is less “susceptible to government control” it can therefore act as an “important check” against wasting government spending.
The Texas Senator also claimed that he likes BTC for the “same reason that the Chinese Communist government doesn’t like bitcoin.”
What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.