Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) has opened the doors for investment funds to invest in cryptocurrency. Resolution 175, drafted last year and coming into effect on October 2, defines the rules these institutions must follow to invest in crypto, with analysts predicting a rise in interest in the sector. Brazilian CVM Resolution 175 Comes Into Effect Resolution 175, introduced by the Brazilian Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM) last year, came into effect on October 2, officially opening the possibilities for investment funds to invest directly in crypto in Brazil. Brazilian analysts declared they believe the resolution will bring institutions to pursue more opportunities in the cryptocurrency sector. Now, investment funds can invest up to 10% of their portfolio in digital assets. However, there are some limits put forth by the CVM, as these institutions are only allowed to purchase cryptocurrencies from exchanges approved by the country’s central bank or...

Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, has expressed concerns that regulatory obstacles will drive crypto innovation away from the U.S. His comments followed a congressional hearing where Congress members grilled U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler over crypto regulation. O’Leary Expects Crypto Innovation to Leave the U.S. Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, the chairman of O’Leary Ventures, shared his view on the future of the U.S. crypto industry in an interview with Fox Business on Friday. He began by commenting on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler’s congressional hearing where he was grilled by Congress members regarding crypto. Noting that he went to Washington D.C. and watched the hearing in person, O’Leary shared: “I watched him [Gensler] get fried like a chicken. It was unbelievable. The fortitude this man must have. The abuse he was taking. It was unbelievable.” Mr. Wonderful proceeded to...

U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected the Securities and Exchange Commission’s interlocutory appeal in the regulator’s lawsuit against Ripple, noting the SEC failed to explain why her prior decision was faulty. Torres set a trial date for April 2024 to address the remaining issues. SEC’s Appeal in Ripple Lawsuit Denied by Judge Torres, Trial Set for April 2024 In a decision unveiled Tuesday, the judge at the helm of the SEC’s litigation against Ripple dismissed the regulator’s interlocutory appeal . The SEC had tendered a motion to certify an interlocutory appeal of two judgments pertaining to XRP in the Ripple case. “The SEC’s motion for certification of interlocutory appeal is denied, and the SEC’s request for a stay is denied as moot,” Torres said in her ruling. Torres explained that the SEC had failed in demonstrating, within its appeal, that the decision was markedly faulty. Rewinding to July, she decreed that Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of XRP “did not constitute t...

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk believes that fiat currency is a scam that is so normalized that we don’t even realize that it’s a scam. Many people share a similar view, including Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, who has frequently cautioned against investing in the U.S. dollar and other fiat currencies, which he labels “fake” money. Elon Musk Thinks Fiat Currency Is a Scam The CEO of Tesla and Spacex, Elon Musk, believes that fiat currency is a scam. In a post on social media platform X, user Wall Street Silver shared an image with a question on Sunday: “What’s a scam that’s so normalized that we don’t even realize it’s a scam anymore?” Musk replied: “Fiat currency.” Musk has long been critical of fiat currency. In February 2021, he tweeted, “When fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn’t look elsewhere.” He also compared fiat currency to BTC , stating: “Bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money.” Nonetheless, he added: “The true battle is between fiat ...

Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried have written a letter to the judge, requesting the court block a government witness, a Ukrainian customer who “lost a substantial portion” of his life savings due to the FTX collapse. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers believe the witness’s testimony about hardships faced due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine would be irrelevant to the charges and highly prejudicial, as it would appeal unfairly to the jury’s sympathies. Bankman-Fried’s Attorneys Oppose Ukrainian Witness Testimony in FTX Legal Battle On Oct. 2, 2023, the law firm Cohen & Gresser submitted a letter to the judge presiding over the criminal case against the former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried . The government wants to allow a customer witness from Ukraine to testify remotely and detail how he “lost a substantial portion” of his life savings due to FTX’s demise. The lawyers insist allowing the Ukrainian witness to testify remotely would violate Bankman-Fried’s Sixth Amendment right to confront wi...

Andrei Kostin, head of the VTB Bank, one of the biggest banks in Russia, has stated that the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the standard messaging system for fiat payments, “needs to be killed.” Kostin remarked that the actions of the U.S. and its use of the dollar have awakened fears in other countries that are also seeking alternatives to the system. Kostin Signals Need for SWIFT to ‘Be Killed’ The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a group that provides the standard messaging protocol for making cross-border transactions in the current global banking system, needs to “be killed,” according to recent statements of Andrei Kostin, head of the VTB Bank. Kostin, who leads the second-largest bank group in Russia, recognized that for this to happen, other countries have to complete a set of actions. At the recent International Banking Forum held in Sochi, Kostin stated : SWIFT – it needs to be killed for our calc...

The Bank of Russia offered an update about the state of the digital ruble, the Russian central bank digital currency (CBDC), which is currently in a nationwide pilot. Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Bank of Russia, stated that the pilot was “going as planned” and that more participants and use cases would be added next year. Bank of Russia on Digital Ruble Pilot: ‘Everything Going as Planned’ The Bank of Russia has offered an update about the digital ruble and the pilot testing the functionalities of the Russian central bank digital currency (CBDC). During a forum, Bank of Russia governor Elvira Nabiullina explained the project was still ongoing and that the institution was getting feedback testing the various functionalities of this new currency. Nabiullina stated : We started the pilot project on the digital ruble with real operations and with real clients in August. Here everything is going as planned, we are testing operations, first of all the opening of wallets, transfer...

Some investors who invested in the South African bitcoin pyramid scheme MTI are set to receive part of their money back once a court rules on how liquidators are supposed to handle claims. Liquidators expect to make more than one payout to affected investors while the process itself is expected to last between two and three years. Net Losers to Get Between 50% and 60% of Their Money Back The liquidators of Mirror Trading International (MTI), an online bitcoin investment scam, are planning to start refunding victims once a court advises them on how to handle the claims, a report has said. According to Herman Bester, a co-director at Tygerberg Trustees, liquidators also want the court to clarify how deposits received from investors in the form of BTC are to be treated. However, according to a report in Mybroadband, Bester and his colleagues stopped short of confirming a plan that will see the so-called net losers only getting between 50% and 60% for every dollar they invested. The f...