Alphabay arrest

To view this email as a web page, go here.

February 13, 2020 CURRENCY SCRAMBLING: Ohio resident Larry Dean Harmon has been charged with laundering more than $300 million in bitcoin for darknet marketplace AlphaBay. Prosecutors said Harmon played a major role in scrambling illicit cryptocurrency transactions for the darknet marketplace. Full story SAFER MARGIN? Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., is getting back into the business of lending money to traders. The exchange said Wednesday its new margin trading feature provides leverage for individual investors in 23 U.S. states. Full story 'OPPORTUNISTIC' RAISE: Fresh on the heels of an $18.3 million Series A funding round in August, crypto lending startup BlockFi has secured a $30 million Series B led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures. “We decided to opportunistically raise the Series B to expand the balance sheet and give ourselves the ability to invest in the things we’re doing this year,” Zac Prince, BlockFi CEO, said. Full story BANK BACKING: Banking giant Wells Fargo is backing blockchain forensics firm Elliptic. Announced Thursday, the fresh $5 million from Wells Fargo Strategic Capital brings Elliptic’s Series B up to a total of $28 million. Full story CODE SCHOOL: Developer John Newbery's weekly Bitcoin Core review club, which teaches students how to inspect the bitcoin source code, will take a look at the next major code update, Taproot/Schnorr. Started last year, the club meets Wednesdays on the old-school chatting service Internet Relay Chat (IRC). Full story NEW SERIES: CoinDesk Research has launched Monthly Reviews, which feature a series of charts that reveal insight into institutional participation in crypto assets and adoption of fundamental user narratives. Download January’s for free here. TOUGH CEILING: Bitcoin’s bulls have failed three times in the last 24 hours to cut through the resistance at $10,500, justifying the overbought signal from a key technical indicator. The cryptocurrency is now vulnerable to a pullback to support of $9,800. If resistance at $10,500 is scaled, more buyers may join the market and push prices toward the next resistance above $10,900. Full story   TIPPING POINT: In a conversation with Michael Casey at the World Economic Forum, Brian Behlendorf of Hyperledger said, blockchain’s potential is “hitting a tipping point.” The executive director thinks that 2019's period of "careful, prosaic BUIDLing" has given way to an ecosystem that will have a net benefit for the world. Watch here WHO WON #CRYPTOTWITTER   Copyright © 2020 CoinDesk, All rights reserved.  Our mailing address is:  250 Park Avenue South New York, NY, 10003, US  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

IRS: Game currencies aren't virtual currencies / Full transparency not ideal for crypto / Binance delays to order book

Inside Bitcoin.

Presented by Subscribe | View in browser Market Watch: Despite a slight dip in value, Bitcoin is trading above $10,000 during Thursday trading. Can it push forward before the end of the week? Altcoin Chiliz is enjoying a surge in value, jumping nearly 50 percent in 24 hours, after partnering with FC Barcelona to create a blockchain-based token. Bitcoin: $10,149 (⬇️ 1.80%) // $184. 8 billion market cap. Ethereum: $263 (⬆️ 3.31%) // $28.8 billion market cap. XRP: $0.318 (⬆️ 6.97%) // $13.8 billion market cap. Bitcoin Cash: $466 (⬇️ 1.50%) // $8.5 billion market cap. Top 100 Winner: Chiliz: $0.017 (⬆️ 48.06%) // $79 million market cap.  Top 100 Loser: Quant: $4.54 (⬇️ 10.45%) // $54 million market cap.  Prices are as of 12:30 p.m. ET. 1. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has changed the wording on its website that placed game currencies as convertible virtual currency. The IRS's website previously indicated that games such as Fortnite's V-bucks and Roblox's Robux were examples of virtual currencies. A snapshot taken by Bloomberg Tax provides a detailed explanation of the wording; however, the website has since been updated to only list Bitcoin as an example. The IRS defines virtual currency as something that can equate to real currency, yet according to a spokesperson for Epic Games, Fortnite's publisher, none of this applies to the game's currency: "V-Bucks cannot 'be digitally traded between users,' nor can they be 'exchanged into, U.S. dollars, euros, and other real or virtual currencies,'" the spokesperson said. -BLOOMBERG 2. In an interview with Cointelegraph, Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CSO at blockchain and crypto analytics firm Chainalysis, has said that "complete transparency is not necessarily an ideal place" for cryptocurrency. However, as he pointed out, there is still a need for regulators and companies to monitor illegal activities within the crypto industry. In his opinion, there needs to be "appropriate levels of legal authority and oversight" in order to achieve this. Turning his attention to privacy-focused coins, the co-founder noted that they are not yet fully able to trace these but that they can perform research on what they are used for. -COINTELEGRAPH A MESSAGE FROM VIRTWAY Virtual 3D Business Events: Cutting costs and sky-rocketing results with Virtway Events’ Technology Traditional events are expensive, time-consuming and their environmental cost is high. Virtway Events' 3D technology is invigorating corporate events of all sizes allowing people to connect with a personal device, network in real-time and engage in a life-like way. Meetings, conferences or fairs, the possibilities are endless. Ask For a Free Demo Now! 3. Throwback Thursday: Gerald Cotten death certificate Last February, it was reported that the CEO of crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten, died in India in December 2018. That's according to an Indian government-issued death certificate. It's believed that he died while traveling in India due to complications with Crohn's disease. At the time, Cotten's death was speculated about because he had sole control over the private keys to customers' funds on the platform. When he died, the exchange owed up to $190 million to 115,000 customers. According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the exchange didn't invest the money entrusted to it. "What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery," it said.  4. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of crypto exchange Binance, acknowledged delays in its order book earlier today and said that it was working to resolve issues. Posting on Twitter, Zhao said: "There is a slight delay in the order book display across some trading pairs. Team[s] are working on it. Funds are #SAFU." He followed this up with a tweet several hours later stating that "parts of the system are still struggling to keep up with the high traffic." Users, however, were not happy with the delays. One complained by questioning whether this was the moment the platform considered "improving [their user interface] first, before adding more stuff?" -@CZ_BINANCE/TWITTER A MESSAGE FROM ATHLETIC GREENS Health experts, top performers and pro athletes all agree that the perfect diet doesn’t exist...so then what? They use Athletic Greens. It’s the all-in-one daily nutritional beverage that gives you 75 vitamins, minerals, and whole-food sourced ingredients–plus the antioxidant equivalent of 12 servings of fruits and veg, gut health benefits, and adaptogens for hormonal support. You’d struggle to find a better go-to source for comprehensive nutrition. We’re giving inside readers 20 Free Travel Packs with their first order! Order Now 5. Financial services company Wells Fargo has invested $5 million into blockchain forensics organization Elliptic, which will aid its Elliptic Discovery product that's designed to help crypto companies win banking relationships, according to Elliptic. With this fresh injection of money, it brings the Series B funding to $28 million. According to Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson, the product enables banks to see "how risky or otherwise a given crypto exchange is." -COIN DESK 6. Spanish football club FC Barcelona has teamed up with Chiliz, a blockchain startup, to create Barca Fan Tokens (BAR) that will give voting power to its more than 300 million fans. Fans of the club, which boasts Lionel Messi as one of its players, will be able to purchase the token through Socios, a social mobile app, and Chiliz. The token will be priced at $2.15 per BAR, with a total supply of 40 million. The token is scheduled for Q2 of this year. -COINTELEGRAPH 7. Circle, a Goldman Sachs-backed crypto startup, has sold its crypto investing app to Voyager Digital Canada, the operator of digital asset broker Voyager. As part of the sale, Voyager will see its customer base grow by over 200,000 users worldwide as it adds 40,000 retail accounts. Voyager will also issue common shares to Circle representing ownership of around 4 percent in the company. The majority of Circle Invest customers are expected to move over to the Voyager Platform by the end of March 2020. -FINEXTRA 8. Michael W. Ackerman from Ohio has been charged by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for allegedly deceiving 150 investors in a crypto trading scheme. In an SEC's complaint, which was filed in New York federal court on Feb. 11, Ackerman is reported to have raised at least $33 million in violation of anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws. The accused and two unnamed partners created the Q3 Trading Club in June 2017. They are reported to have sought investors through Facebook, targeting physicians in a private Physicians Dads Group on the site. -CRYPTOPOLITAN 9. Crypto advocate and presidential candidate Andrew Yang has suspended his campaign. Last summer, Yang, who has voiced supportive views on the crypto and blockchain industry, said that if he won the 2020 presidential race, he would introduce blockchain-based voting. In November, he wrote a post outlining how he would regulate the crypto industry. However, speaking to supporters earlier this week, Yang announced that he was suspending his campaign during the New Hampshire primary, stating that "it is clear tonight from the numbers that we are not going to win this race." -NPR 10. The National Bank of Egypt has teamed up with blockchain-based payments company Ripple to boost incoming remittances. The signing of the agreement makes this the bank's first venture into the blockchain space. It's hoped that this will add a new and important channel for receiving remittances from other countries into Egypt. -YOUM7 This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter. Edited by Beth Duckett, staff writer at Inside. Ad Your 3D Space for Conferences. Ad The daily habit that sets you up for a healthy future. Order Now

We're Hiring! Learn more. | Sponsorship opportunities Copyright © 2020 Inside.com, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Inside.com 767 Bryant St. #203 San Francisco, CA 94107 Did someone forward this email to you? Head over to inside.com to get your very own free subscription! You received this email because you subscribed to Inside Bitcoin. Click here to unsubscribe from Inside Bitcoin list or manage your subscriptions.