Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked victims of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s fraud to come forward. The former FTX executive has been charged with “defrauding customers of FTX.com, investors in FTX.com, and lenders to Alameda Research,” the Justice Department noted. DOJ Urges Victims of SBF Fraud to Come Forward The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) reached out to victims of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)’s fraud via its website Friday, explaining their rights and asking them to come forward. Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX and served as its CEO when the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in November last year. The DOJ wrote: If you believe that you may have been a victim of fraud by Samuel Bankman-Fried, a/k/a ‘SBF,’ please contact the victim/witness coordinator at the United States Attorney’s Office … for assistance in verifying whether you are a victim in this case. The Justice Department explained that on Dec. 13, 2022, “an eight-count indictment was unsealed ...

Mark Cuban, a Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, has warned that the next crypto implosion could come from “the discovery and removal of wash trades” on centralized exchanges. The billionaire’s comments followed the collapse of crypto exchange FTX which wiped out billions of dollars of customer funds. Mark Cuban on the Next Crypto Implosion Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, shared his thoughts on the next crypto implosion with The Street, published Friday. The billionaire said: I think the next possible implosion is the discovery and removal of wash trades on central exchanges. “There are supposedly tens of millions of dollars in trades and liquidity for tokens that have very little utilization,” Cuban emphasized. “I don’t see how they can be that liquid.” However, the Shark Tank star admitted: “I don’t have any specifics to offer to support my guess.” Wash trading has long been a concern with cryptocurrenc...

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan says crypto is “too dependent on the ‘greater fool theory’ to be a desirable investment.” However, he noted that the collapse of crypto exchange FTX was “purely fraud,” rather than the result of a feature inherent to crypto. He does not expect the FTX contagion to spread far beyond the crypto space. Alan Greenspan on Crypto, FTX, and US Economy Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan shared his views on cryptocurrency, the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, and the U.S. economy in a year-end Q&A published by Advisors Capital Management this week. Greenspan served five terms as chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1987 to 2006. He was appointed chairman by four different U.S. presidents. He joined Advisors Capital Management in September 2016 as Economic Advisor to the asset management firm. The former Fed chair was asked to comment on the FTX meltdown and whether he expects contagion from it. “I...

The host of Mad Money, Jim Cramer, says he expects the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to do a roundup of crypto firms that are not compliant with regulation. Expecting the SEC “to sweep everything,” Cramer urges investors to “get out” of crypto now. Jim Cramer’s Latest Crypto Warnings The host of CNBC’s Mad Money show, Jim Cramer, is back with more warnings for crypto investors. Cramer is a former hedge fund manager who co-founded Thestreet.com, a financial news and literacy website. Following a joint statement about crypto risks by the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Cramer said on CNBC Wednesday: I think these statements are the beginning of what I have been calling for, which is that the SEC is going to do a roundup of all of the ones [crypto firms] who are not compliant. Citing John Stark, who served as an attorney for over 18 years in the SEC’s Enforcement Division, ...

Since the beginning of 2023, cryptocurrency miners operating in Kazakhstan are obliged to pay new fees for the power they need to mint digital coins. A surcharge introduced in 2021 now depends on the price of electricity consumed by bitcoin farms and can be much higher than the original levy. New Year Brings Higher Costs for Companies Mining Crypto in Kazakhstan Starting from Jan. 1, an electricity fee imposed on crypto miners in Kazakhstan is being calculated according to a progressive scale. The initial universal surcharge of 1 Kazakhstani tenge ($0.002) per kilowatt-hour ( kWh ), first adopted in the summer of 2021, can now reach 25 tenge (over $0.05). The rate in each case depends on the source and price of electrical energy used to extract digital currencies. The new mechanism to determine the tariff was introduced with a bill amending the country’s Tax Code which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed into law in July 2022. The base for the levy is the average price of ele...

As of November 2022, Kenyan fintechs accounted for 30.2% or 93 out of the 308 tracked tech startups, a Disrupt Africa study recently found. In addition, the study findings show that the fintech sub-sector alone accounted for 3,100 or 27% of the 11,462 people that were employed by tech startups during the same period. Fintechs Solving Fundamental Problems According to the findings of a study on Kenya’s startup space, fintech ventures alone accounted for just over 30% or 93 out of the 308 tracked startups. This figure is almost three times more than that of the nearest challengers, namely agri-tech and e-health, which both accounted for 10.1% of Kenya’s tech startups that were tracked between January and November 2022. However, as explained in Disrupt Africa’s study report on the Kenyan startup ecosystem, the dominance of fintechs is not unusual. “Fintech takes the top spot in most African countries as it solves fundamental problems for the populace, is an area in which novel tech ...

Animoca Brands, a Web3 gaming-focused company, has announced it is now targeting a raise of $1 billion for a fund directed to inject help for already established blockchain projects. The number is significantly lower than the $2 billion the company announced back in November as an upper limit for this same fund. Animoca Brands Announces Lower Numbers for Web3 and Metaverse Fund Animoca Brands, one of the most popular Web3 gaming and blockchain companies, has made a new announcement regarding its fundraising goals for Q1 2023. Yat Siu, a co-founder of the company, recently stated in a Twitter Spaces chat it was looking to raise $1 billion from various parties for a fund provisionally called Animoca Capital, which would focus its activities on supporting already established Web3 projects. This number is significantly lower than the goal Siu established back in November when he first revealed plans to launch this fund, declaring that Animoca Brands expected to raise up to $2 billion...