Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Liquidators of Mirror Trading International (MTI) have attacked the claim that declaring the collapsed bitcoin investment platform an unlawful scheme would jeopardize investors’ chances of recovering their funds. The Unsubstantiated Claim South African liquidators of Mirror Trading International (MTI) have rejected the claim that declaring the collapsed bitcoin investment platform an unlawful operation would result in victims losing everything. The liquidators suggested that the “unsubstantiated” claim is being propagated by a few MTI investors and their legal representatives. According to a Mybroadband report that cites a circular issued by Investrust, the liquidators are adamant that there is no evidence that supports the claims. The report said: The available evidence is overwhelming and uncontroverted: MTI was a massive fraudulent scam, and this will remain the position. The liquidators also warned MTI investors who stand to lose everything that they should not be hoodwink...

PRESS RELEASE. The popularity surrounding both the metaverse as well as different games has skyrocketed lately, with numerous projects all vying to attract investors. To that end, Geopoly is a geolocation economic simulation game that was introduced by Widow Games. It enables users to rent, acquire, improve, and sell real-world enterprises all over the world. The game runs in two layers: off-chain which runs on Android and iOS, and on-chain. The on-chain part of Geopoly is running on Polygon, and the connection with it provides an innovative ecosystem based on a gaming simulation technology that has not often been observed in this market. Geopoly therefore allows players to explore different possibilities, rent, purchase, invest and sell where the main aim is to create as much income as possible and dramatically develop the user’s enterprise. Players begin from the ground up to create the biggest real-estate empire the world has ever seen. Recently, the Geopoly presale with Seedi...

The U.K.’s. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has made its first non-fungible token (NFT) seizure. British authorities also seized some crypto and arrested three people in a fraud case involving 250 allegedly fake companies. “Our first seizure of a non-fungible token serves as a warning to anyone who thinks they can use crypto assets to hide money from HMRC.” NFTs and Crypto Assets Seized by UK Tax Authority Britain’s HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) said Monday that it has seized three non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrency worth about 5,000 pounds in an ongoing fraud investigation. Three people have also been arrested. The U.K.’s tax, payments, and customs authority added that it was HMRC’s first-ever NFT seizure. The seized digital art NFTs have not been appraised. The ongoing value-added tax (VAT) repayment fraud case involves 250 allegedly fake companies accused of defrauding the public coffers of 1.4 million pounds ($1.9 million). The suspects allegedly attempted to cla...

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, says that a digital euro will not replace cash but would complement it. “A digital euro would give you an additional choice about how to pay and make it easier to do so, contributing to accessibility and inclusion,” the ECB explained. Digital Euro to Complement Cash ECB President Christine Lagarde talked about the digital euro at the plenary session of the European Parliament Monday on the 20th anniversary of the introduction of euro banknotes and coins. “Last year, we launched the digital euro project,” she said. “We will investigate how a digital euro could offer a convenient, cost-free means of payment, allowing people to pay anywhere in the euro area with risk-free digital money – for example, when making payments online, which preclude the use of cash,” the ECB chief continued, emphasizing: In any event, a digital euro would complement cash, not replace it. This is also why we launched the process for redes...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged cryptocurrency lending platform Blockfi in a first-of-its-kind action. The crypto lender has agreed to pay $100 million to settle the charges and pursue necessary registrations. SEC Charges Crypto Lending Platform Blockfi The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Monday that crypto lending platform Blockfi has agreed to pay $100 million in penalties. The SEC explained that “In this first-of-its-kind action,” it “charged Blockfi Lending LLC with failing to register the offers and sales of its retail crypto lending product, Blockfi Interest Accounts (BIAs).” SEC Chairman Gary Gensler commented: This is the first case of its kind with respect to crypto lending platforms. To settle the SEC’s charges, Blockfi agreed to pay a $50 million penalty and cease its unregistered offers and sales of the lending product. The company also agreed to pay an additional $50 million in fines to 32 states to settle simi...

According to an announcement from Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness the Bank of Jamaica plans to “roll out” its central bank digital currency (CBDC) after the country’s successful pilot last year. Jamaica’s CBDC Is Due to Launch This Year Jamaica, the island country situated in the Caribbean Sea is planning to launch its CBDC this year, according to Prime Minister Andrew Holness. The Jamaican bureaucrat tweeted about the CBDC on February 10, when he said : “the Bank of Jamaica will roll out our own digital Jamaican dollar in 2022 after a successful pilot during 2021.” The statement follows the Jamaican central bank’s “successful” pilot it experimented with last year. At the end of 2021, the Bank of Jamaica told the public three schemes were tested during the pilot phase. The statements stemming from Holness reiterated that the CBDC was successful and the digital currency will be the foundational infrastructure. “This will serve as a foundation for Jamaica’s digital payments...

PRESS RELEASE. Lbank excited to announce that LBank Exchange —the world-class digital asset trading platform—has integrated Chainlink Price Feeds . By integrating the industry-leading decentralized oracle network, LBank Exchange will have access to high-quality, tamper-proof price feeds needed to help secure perpetual futures trading on the platform. This will provide our users with stronger assurances that LBank futures contracts are using reliable, high-quality market data for asset prices. Chainlink was chosen as the go-to oracle solution because its infrastructure is seamless to integrate and time-tested in production. Chainlink already helps secure leading DeFi protocols responsible for tens of billions of dollars in smart contract value. It stays secure and available even amidst unexpected network events, such as exchange downtime, flash crashes, and data manipulation attacks via flash loans. As a global digital asset trading platform that provides services to more than 6.4 m...

The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), working in partnership with Bank ABC, recently announced it had successfully tested the transfer of funds across borders using JPMorgan’s JPM Coin. The test fulfills the central bank’s goal of creating safe and efficient settlement solutions for customers. Eliminating Inefficiencies in the Cross-Border Payment Arena With CBDCs Bahrain’s central bank recently said it had piloted its first cross border funds transfer using the JPMorgan blockchain. The transfer, which was carried out in partnership with Bank ABC, is the latest step taken by the CBB as it prepares to launch its digital currency. In his comments following the latest test, CBB governor, Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, is quoted by Unlock Media lauding the central bank’s ongoing tests. He said: We at the Central Bank of Bahrain are extremely pleased to announce the success of this test which aligns with our vision and strategy to continually develop and enrich the capabilities extended to ...

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, says that crypto assets and stablecoins are no match for well-designed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). “If CBDCs are designed prudently, they can potentially offer more resilience, more safety, greater availability, and lower costs than private forms of digital money,” she said. IMF on Crypto, Stablecoins, and CBDCs IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva gave a speech last week at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. regarding the future of money, cryptocurrency, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Noting that central banks have moved beyond conceptual discussions regarding digital currencies and are in the experimentation phase, she noted: “These are still early days for CBDCs and we don’t quite know how far and how fast they will go.” Nonetheless, the IMF chief said: If CBDCs are designed prudently, they can potentially offer more resilience, more safety, greater avai...

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, expects the United States Congress to take a long time to pass cryptocurrency legislation despite mounting interest in crypto investments and regulators calling for Congress to weigh in on crypto legislation. Congress Could Take a Long Time on Crypto Legislation The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS, published its view on U.S. crypto legislation Friday after the House of Financial Services Committee held a lengthy hearing on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins last week. The Swiss bank’s U.S. Office of Public Policy explained that at the hearing, a senior Treasury official discussed recommendations made in a stablecoin report issued by the Department of the Treasury and other regulators. “To fill in regulatory gaps and address financial stability concerns, the regulators would like Congress to develop legislation that regulates stablecoin issuers as banks,” the UBS team detailed, noting that this proposal has received pushback from so...

Popular trading app Robinhood has revealed that its international expansion will be “crypto first.” The company said from the regulatory standpoint, crypto is “probably the easiest way to go global.” The trading platform is also looking for compliant ways to list more cryptocurrencies. Robinhood Becoming ‘Crypto-First’ Company Steve Quirk, Robinhood’s chief brokerage officer, talked about the firm’s turnaround strategy and crypto in an interview with CNBC last week. Noting that Robinhood now has seven cryptocurrencies listed, the executive revealed that the platform is trying to find ways to expand the number of cryptocurrencies listed. He described: We are doing a lot of exploration about finding compliant ways to expand that. Robinhood currently supports the buying, selling, and real-time market data for bitcoin ( BTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), bitcoin sv ( BSV ), dogecoin (DOGE), ethereum ( ETH ), ethereum classic ( ETC ), and litecoin ( LTC ). Several executives from Robinho...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned about romance scams using cryptocurrency. Scammers use romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially crypto, the federal agency explained. “2021 numbers are nearly five times those reported in 2020, and more than 25 times those reported in 2019,” said the FTC. FTC Warns About Crypto Romance Scams The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning Thursday about crypto-related romance scams. The FTC is an independent agency of the U.S. government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil U.S. antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. “New data from the Federal Trade Commission show that more consumers than ever report falling prey to romance scammers. Consumers reported losing $547 million in 2021 alone,” the FTC wrote, adding: A growing trend in 2021 was scammers using romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially cryptocurrency. “Consumers who paid roman...

The Spanish parliament has introduced an amendment to the tax model 720 used to declare cryptocurrency and other holdings abroad, softening some of the penalties associated with it. The modification, which has not yet been approved, changes some of the harsher penalties that were declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the European Union last month. New Model 720 in Parliament An amendment of the tax model 720, which forced taxpayers to disclose crypto and other kinds of asset holdings outside of the country, was introduced in the Spanish Parliament on February 10th. The antifraud law which was approved last June dictates that cryptocurrencies abroad would have to be declared using this model. The proposed amendment seeks to eliminate certain penalties in the previous model 720 that were declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the European Union last month. According to the old structure, debtors could pay up to 150% of their holdings abroad depending on the circumstance...

Seven executives of the collapsed South Korean scam cryptocurrency exchange, V Global, were recently handed lengthy jail sentences as punishment for their role in running one of the country’s biggest crypto frauds. Verdict Sets New Benchmark Seven former masterminds of the now-defunct scam crypto exchange, V Global, were recently given jail sentences for their part in misappropriating nearly $1.9 billion in investors’ funds. Lee Byung-gul, who was the CEO of the entity when the funds went missing, was handed a 22-year jail term while his accomplices were given jail sentences that range between four and 14 years. According to a report by Forkast, the jailing of Lee Byung-gul and his fellow executives comes a month after prosecutors asked for life sentences. At the time, the prosecutors argued that handing the offenders life sentences would reflect the severity of the offenses. However, the report reveals that the jail sentences given to the CEO and his co-conspirators are in fact ...

On February 10, the well-known developer of Cydia and iOS Jailbreak, Jay Freeman, otherwise known as Saurik, published a Twitter thread about a bug he found in the Layer-2 (L2) scaling protocol known as Optimism. According to Freeman, the vulnerability, which has been patched, could have allowed an attacker to create an infinite amount of tokens. Cydia Creator ‘Saurik’ Discovers Optimism L2 Vulnerability Jay Freeman is a prominent software developer who is well known for his iOS Jailbreak and Cydia tools. Freeman’s Cydia graphical user interface (GUI) was released in February 2008, and it gives users with jailbroken iPhones the ability to download unauthorized software for the Apple smartphone operating system iOS. Freeman recently published a blog post called “Attacking an Ethereum L2 with Unbridled Optimism,” which explains how he reported a critical security issue to the developers of the L2 scaling solution Optimism. Optimism’s L2 solution allows users to move ethereum for a f...

The governor of Hungary’s central bank has called for a ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining in the European Union. “It is clear-cut that cryptocurrencies could service illegal activities and tend to build up financial pyramids,” he said. Hungarian Central Bank Chief Wants EU-Wide Crypto Trading and Mining Ban The Hungarian National Bank, the central bank of Hungary, published a statement Friday from György Matolcsy, the governor of the central bank, declaring that the “Time has come to ban crypto trading and mining in the EU.” He noted that “China declared all cryptocurrency activities illegal last September” and Russia’s central bank has proposed “a ban on crypto trading and mining.” Commenting on the Russian central bank’s crypto ban proposal, Governor Matolcsy said: I perfectly agree with the proposal and also support the senior EU financial regulator’s point that the EU should ban the mining method used to produce new bitcoin. In January, the vice chairman of the Boar...

Financial services firm Wells Fargo says that cryptocurrencies are viable investments that have entered the “hyper-adoption” phase. “Cryptocurrencies have been following an adoption pattern similar to other new advanced technologies, such as the internet,” the firm’s global investment team detailed. Crypto in Hyper-Adoption Phase, Says Wells Fargo Wells Fargo’s investment institute published a special report titled “Understanding Cryptocurrency” this week. The report attempts to answer whether it is “too early or too late” to invest in cryptocurrencies. The Wells Fargo team explained: We believe that cryptocurrencies are viable investments today, even though they remain in the early stages of their investment evolution. They added: “We recommend professionally managed private placements for now, as the investment landscape is still maturing.” The research team continued: “We see cryptocurrencies in the ‘early, but not too early’ investment stage, which is why we have emphasize...

Netflix has ordered a documentary series about the couple who allegedly laundered billions of dollars from the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Aspiring rapper Heather Morgan and her husband, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, were arrested in New York this week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) also seized 94,636 bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex hack. Documentary Series About the Bitfinex Hack and the Couple Involved, Coming Soon to Netflix American subscription streaming service and production company Netflix announced Friday that it “has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency in the biggest criminal financial crime case in history.” The company explained that Chris Smith — famed for directing “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and “Tiger King” — is set to direct and executive produce the Bitfinex documentary series. In addition, writer and producer Nick Bilton — famed for “Fake Famous,” “The Inve...

The Argentinian Tax Authority (AFIP) will now be able to confiscate the assets that taxpayers have in digital wallets if they have debts with the organization. The recommendation for attorneys of this institution to include these digital accounts was made last year, but the execution of debt collection was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic period. However, these procedures started being executed on January 31. Argentinian Tax Authority Eyeing Digital Wallets The AFIP, the Argentinian Tax Authority, has included funds in digital wallets as one of the assets that can be confiscated from taxpayers to settle tax-related debts. This addition was suggested to state attorneys in November, but the confiscation procedures of this kind were suspended until January 31st due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organization has now defined the procedure it needs to follow to confiscate assets in these digital accounts. It adds this to other investment vehicles at its disposal to c...

PRESS RELEASE. Universe Finance has stated that its IDO will begin on the 15th of February and will run till the 18th. Universe Finance wants to provide the finest Uniswap V3 active liquidity management platform on Ethereum and Polygon. What can Universe Finance offer? Security is one of the most problematic things when it comes to the DeFi sector. Several assaults have disabled various protocols and stolen countless funds from so many investors within the past ten years or so. Universe Finance believes that security is key and it has hence strived to become extremely safe by deploying mechanisms that enable it to prevent flash loan assaults, sandwich attacks, price oracle manipulation, attacks on private keys, and also excessive contract authority. Universe Finance utilizes extremely limited parameters as well as a multi-signature scheme in addition to white hat hackers, a real-time risk management system, an audit report and a private vault. To provide an even safer overall e...

A bill has been introduced in Canada to encourage the growth of the crypto sector. “Canada should be attracting billions of dollars in investment in the fast growing crypto asset industry. Today I introduced a bill, the first of its kind in Canada, to make sure this becomes a reality,” said the parliament member who introduced the bill. Bill to Grow Crypto Sector Launched in Canada Canadian parliament member Michelle Rempel Garner introduced “Bill C-249” on Wednesday, which “may be cited as the Encouraging the Growth of the Cryptoasset Sector Act,” according to the text of the bill. Conservative MP Garner tweeted: Canada should be attracting billions of dollars in investment in the fast growing crypto asset industry. Today I introduced a bill, the first of its kind in Canada, to make sure this becomes a reality. The bill requires Canada’s minister of finance “to develop a national framework to encourage the growth of the cryptoasset sector.” In addition, it requires the ministe...

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, says the securities regulator is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto regulation. In addition, he said the SEC is “trying to work with various crypto platforms, exchanges, lending platforms” to ensure investor protection. SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Crypto Regulation SEC Chairman Gary Gensler talked about cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Bloomberg this week. “We do have a broad agenda and crypto is part of that agenda,” he began. Commenting specifically on crypto regulation, the SEC boss affirmed that “The agency is really just looking out for investors,” emphasizing that “many of these tokens have the attributes of securities.” He further explained, “They are raising money from the public, and the public is anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.” Gensler described: We brought a number of actions. We’re trying to work with various crypto pl...

Veteran investor and fund manager Bill Miller says he has “a very big position” in bitcoin and expects to see a lot of institutional adoption this year, particularly among endowments and foundations. “Bitcoin is insurance against financial catastrophe,” he opined. Bill Miller Says ‘Bitcoin Is Insurance Against Financial Catastrophe’ Famed value investor Bill Miller talked about bitcoin in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. He is the founder of Miller Value Partners and currently serves as its chairman and chief investment officer. He manages the firm’s Opportunity Equity and Income Strategy funds. Prior to Miller Value Partners, he co-founded Legg Mason Capital Management. Referring to bitcoin, Miller described, “It’s like an insurance policy.” He elaborated: “Insurance policies have no intrinsic value. In fact, you want them to have no intrinsic value. You don’t want to have your house burned down or get in a terrible accident but you pay for insurance every year in case that happe...

Speaking in an interview on Friday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained that the company will accept cryptocurrencies “at some point.” Khosrowshahi noted that there were two downsides to leveraging the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, such as “the exchange mechanism is expensive, [and] it’s not great for the environment.” Uber CEO Says Firm Will Likely Accept Cryptocurrencies at Some Point, Company Converses About the Subject All the Time At some point in time, Uber Technologies, the mobility service provider (ride-share service) will accept cryptocurrencies, according to Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi . The Uber executive said this while speaking with Bloomberg Markets’ show hosts Emily Chang and Guy Johnson on Friday. During the interview , Khosrowshahi said that Uber is discussing cryptocurrency “all the time” and he noted that they have become extremely valuable. “I think right now what we see with bitcoin and some of the other [cryptocurrencies] is that they are quite valuable as...

The American firm that produces Bazooka chewing gum, candy, and collectibles, Topps has announced the company is planning to auction one of the rarest baseball cards on earth in NFT form — Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card. The Topps 1 of 1 “Timeless Collectible” will be issued as a non-fungible token (NFT) and sold on the NFT marketplace Opensea on March 1, 2022. Topps Announces 1952 Mickey Mantle NFT Card Auction via Opensea, Physical Card With a PSA 9 Score Is Worth $5.2 Million Topps has announced the minting of one of the rarest baseball cards in the world as the company has revealed it plans to auction the digital collectible on March 1st through the 4th, next month. According to the Topps website, the firm is auctioning the Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card which is a highly sought after collectible in the real world. The physical card has an estimated worth of around $5.2 million as the card was purchased for that price by the entrepreneur and actor Rob Gough last year. According...

Reports indicate that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, Binance, has announced the crypto company has committed to investing $200 million into the American business magazine Forbes. The digital currency company Binance confirmed the $200 million stake into Forbes on the social media platform Twitter. Binance Pledges $200 Million to Forbes Binance has made a $200 million investment into Forbes, the U.S.-based business magazine and digital publisher owned by the Forbes family and Integrated Whale Media Investments. A report published by CNBC, and shared by Binance on Twitter, explains that the investment “is the first step into a marketplace that has really high potential when it comes to adoption of Web 3.0 based tools” Forbes has plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal with Magnum Opus. “Binance’s strategic investment will be through Binance’s assumption of subscription agreements representing $200 million of commitments...

PRESS RELEASE. For many pet owners, owning a pet is akin to having a child. They consider the pets as family members, and these family members deserve to be entertained and pampered. Global Pets World Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of WisdomCome Group, in collaboration with Ammbr Group, will be launching the world’s first global pets theme park welcoming pets of all descriptions, along with their owners and other pet lovers. The concept is a novel yet classic theme park and membership club concept that leverages Distributed Ledger Technology to scale customer engagement, raise funding, and operate club memberships, rewards, access control and internal club payments. With over 50% of global households owning pets, and the market valued at over US $220 Billion, the Global Pets World will provide a safe, welcoming, and entertaining experience for both pet owners and pets, while offering variety of services to make them enjoy and enhance their lives together, unraveling great oppor...