Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A U.K. citizen has been sentenced by а New York court to five years in prison for his role in a Twitter hack including the hijacking of accounts of U.S. political and business figures. The man is also responsible for the theft of large amounts of cryptocurrency in a SIM swap attack. Hacker Goes to Jail for Breaching Twitter Accounts of U.S. Officials and Business Leaders A British national got a five-year prison sentence for his involvement in a Twitter hack that targeted the accounts of leading U.S. politicians and businessmen. The hijacking is one of several crimes that he was charged with, including stealing cryptocurrency and cyberstalking victims. The sentencing comes after Joseph James O’Connor pleaded guilty in New York in May to participating in a number of online schemes including a Twitter hack that led to the impersonation of former U.S. President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and billionaire investor Warren Buffett, among others, to adver...

Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDC) in Latam and the Caribbean is picking up, Lula criticizes the current international economic system, and Venezuela integrates the Russian Mir payments system. IMF Finds Interest in CBDC Picks up Steam in Latam and the Caribbean A report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that interest in central bank digital currencies (CBDC) remains high in Latam and the Caribbean. According to a recent survey with governments of the region, “half of the respondents were considering both retail and wholesale CBDC options.” Brazil is one of the countries experimenting with a two-tiered CBDC model, which is in its proof of concept stage. If issued, it would be connected to the “Open Finance” concept of the Central Bank of Brazil. The reasons for...

Mary Daly, the president of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, expressed her views this week, stating that she believes two additional rate hikes this year would be appropriate. However, she maintains a neutral stance regarding the forthcoming July Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, emphasizing her desire to preserve flexibility by “maintaining optionality.” Fed’s Daly Doesn’t Want to ‘Trip the Economy up Into an Unforced Error’ During the June FOMC gathering, the U.S. Federal Reserve members decided to refrain from raising the federal funds rate for that specific meeting. Jerome Powell, the current chairman of the Federal Reserve, informed the media that the upcoming July FOMC meeting would be a “live” one, as it would determine whether or not the central bank would increase the interest rate during that period. Powell then testified before the House Financial Services Committee last Wednesday and indicated that the benchmark bank rate is likely to rise again thi...

Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently asserted that former SEC Division of Corporation Finance Director William Hinman “received millions of dollars of payments from his law firm” which had a vested interest in a well-known 2018 speech given by the then SEC official. In other news, crypto exchange EDX has launched backed by Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, Paradigm, Sequoia Capital, and Virtu Financial, featuring four cryptocurrencies. This and more in the latest Bitcoin.com News Week in Review. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse: Former SEC Official William Hinman Received ‘Millions of Dollars’ From Law Firms With a ‘Vested Interest’ in His Speech Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has blasted the enforcement approach of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) after the release of the Hinman docs, which contain internal discussions that the institution had before the now famous 2018 speech offered by former SEC Division of Corporation Finance Director Wil...

The Bank of England made an impactful move last Thursday, June 22, 2023, as it raised the benchmark bank rate to 5%, marking a significant 0.5 percentage point increase. This decision catapults the central bank’s rate to its highest level since 2008 and represents the most substantial surge in three months. Coinciding with this development, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) published a study on the same day, asserting that the escalated interest rates would translate into elevated mortgage payments, potentially pushing 1.2 million households in the U.K. towards insolvency in 2023. Bank of England’s Interest Rate Hikes Endanger 1.2 Million UK Households’ Financial Stability, NIESR Researchers Say In a noteworthy announcement on Thursday, the Bank of England (BOE) unveiled its decision to increase the key bank rate by 0.5%, propelling it to a solid 5%. Shedding light on the rationale behind this move, the BOE articulated in a blog post that inflation in t...

Veteran trader Peter Brandt recently branded BTC as a legacy coin that will ultimately outlast and outperform all “make-believe cryptos wannabees.” Some non-bitcoin maximalists have said the veteran trader’s remarks about bitcoin are misguided and called on him to remain flexible. Maximalist Ideology Veteran trader Peter Brandt recently riled altcoiners after he suggested that bitcoin will outperform and outlast what he described as “make-believe cryptos wannabees.” Brandt made the remarks after Mike Cautillo — a private investor at e-Holdings — concurred with his earlier tweet about BTC ’s impending “decisive breakout.” $Bitcoin $BTC is the legacy coin and will outlast and out-value all of the make-believe cryptos wannabees https://t.co/uzeuKua1qk — Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) June 19, 2023 Matthew Casterns, one of the Twitter users that responded to Brandt’s remarks, said he did not understand the reasoning behind the veteran trader’s assertions. Casterns argued that procl...