Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Hungarian authorities have seized cryptocurrency worth over $1 million from a criminal organization in a value-added tax (VAT) fraud case. The authorities raided 28 locations, arrested three suspects, and seized various assets tied to the group. The seized cryptocurrencies were transferred to the wallet controlled by the Hungarian tax authority. Crypto Seized in Tax Fraud Case The National Tax and Customs Administration of Hungary (NAV) announced Wednesday that it has seized cryptocurrency from a criminal organization that evaded paying three billion Hungarian forints ($8.2 million) in value-added tax (VAT). NAV commandos, the Merkur Deployment Unit, and the investigators of the Western Transdanubian Criminal Directorate simultaneously raided 28 locations, arrested the suspects, and seized their illegally acquired assets and cryptocurrency worth nearly 420 million forints ($1.15 million). Without providing specific details, the NAV stated that the seized cryptocurrencies were trans...

Coinshares, a European digital asset manager, is moving into the U.S. with a new hedge fund division aimed at institutional investors. The firm, based in Saint Helier, Jersey, intends to offer comprehensive services for institutions exploring crypto assets. Coinshares Expands to U.S. With New Hedge Fund Division The company revealed its new branch, Coinshares Hedge Fund Solutions, signifying its foundational emphasis as a crypto-centric hedge fund manager. Lewis Fellas, an asset manager with more than two decades of experience, including seven years in the digital assets sector, will lead this division. The press release highlights the merger of Coinshares ‘ ten years in crypto with the expertise the team has developed from proprietary trading since 2016. The firm holds that this experience equips it to produce competitive products comparable to those of mainstream financial entities. “In a changing macro environment prominently marked by interest rates and inflation, the demand...

Venture capitalist Katie Haun is optimistic about the future of crypto. “It’s a really good time to be investing in this space during this down market,” she said. “I have actually never felt that in prior cycles, crypto was more inevitable than in this cycle, and this is the fourth cycle I’ve been in crypto,” she further shared. Katie Haun on Crypto’s Future and SEC Regulations Venture capitalist Katie Haun, founder and CEO of Haun Ventures, a $1.5 billion Web3-focused venture capital fund, shared her optimism about the future of crypto at Techcrunch Disrupt on Thursday. Haun was previously a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm. She also served on the Coinbase board. Before becoming a venture capitalist, she spent a decade as a federal prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice. Commenting on her venture capital funds’ crypto investment strategy, she described: “I think there’s a perception out there that crypto is crickets chir...

Crypto exchange Binance and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit against them by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). “It is clear that the SEC’s lawsuit has no foundation in the currently enacted securities laws,” they argued, alleging: “In attempting to claim regulatory power over the crypto industry, the SEC distorts the text of the securities laws.” Binance and CZ Seek to Dismiss SEC Lawsuit Cryptocurrency exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) filed a joint motion on Thursday to dismiss the lawsuit against them by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the court filing , the lawyers for Binance and Zhao wrote: “The SEC’s claims against BHL [Binance Holdings Ltd.] and Mr. Zhao should be dismissed with prejudice.” They added: It is clear that the SEC’s lawsuit has no foundation in the currently enacted securities laws. “In attempting to claim regulatory power over the crypto industry, the SEC distorts...

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee has passed the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, the first anti-central bank digital currency legislative effort introduced in the United States . Congressman Tom Emmer detailed that the bill halts the efforts of the Biden administration “from issuing a financial surveillance tool that will undermine the American way of life.” CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act Advances U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) announced Wednesday that the House Financial Services Committee has passed the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act , which he and 50 other lawmakers reintroduced in Congress last week. “It’s the first anti-central bank digital currency [CBDC] legislative effort introduced in the United States,” Emmer emphasized, noting that he has been working on the bill for over three years. “Today, this bill has the support of 60 members of Congress and groups ranging from the Independent Community Bankers Association and American Bankers Association to Cl...

The U.K. Online Safety Bill, a piece of legislation that seeks to make the country “the safest place in the world to be online,” has been signed by both houses of parliament and will become law soon. Several civil liberties organizations and activists have criticized it due to its possible effects on online privacy and encryption. U.K. Online Safety Bill Ready to Become Law The U.K. Online Safety Bill, a piece of legislation that seeks to improve the safety levels of children and adults online, has been passed by both houses of the parliament and is ready to become law. In a press release, the U.K. government stated that the law will make the country “the safest place in the world to be online,” establishing new rules that messaging and social media platforms now have to comply with. The bill, which takes a “zero-tolerance approach to protecting children and makes sure social media platforms are held responsible for the content they host” by establishing penalties of up to £18 mil...

Game rooms, unlimited food buffets, massage chairs and all those gimmicks were so 2010’s. Sure, it has been fun for a while, but soon enough, we started seeing more and more reports and news articles about how these incentives don’t accomplish their goal. No matter how many fancy perks there are, unless there’s a strong mission and an enticing model of work in an organization, flashy offices lose their appeal really fast . Binance has never put much stock in superior office comfort as a means of attracting and retaining top talent. Don’t get them wrong – their offices offer some of these perks as well, but they’re never the main reason employees want to stay with the organization. That’s why Binance’s mission, and enabling employee growth, are the biggest motivators for their workforce. Binance takes a different approach when it comes to their working model – they always talk about how they need the right people with the right cultural fit and how most people might not fit in . ...

Eclipse, an organization that allows for the construction of customizable rollups, has announced the architecture of its Eclipse mainnet, a Solana-powered Ethereum layer two (L2) scaling rollup. The rollup will benefit from using the Solana Virtual Machine as an execution layer, leveraging this blockchain’s various security and performance benefits. Eclipse Announces Ethereum L2 Using Solana Virtual Machine Eclipse, an organization focused on building scaling solutions for Ethereum, announced its Eclipse mainnet L2 (layer two) solution using Solana-based tech. The project, which is being promoted as the “fastest” Ethereum rollup by the company, will use the Solana Virtual Machine ( SVM ) to take advantage of the improvements this has over the traditionally used Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) One of these advantages is the parallelized processing of the SVM, which allows performance to scale more efficiently. Also, the possibility of local fee markets, meaning that one non-fungibl...