Bitcoin | $46,533 | 7 day: -17.7% | Ethereum | $1,458 | 7 day: -27% | All crypto | $1.45T | 7 day: -15.5% | Bitcoin dominance | 60.8% | 7 day: -0.9% | Prices as of 10:40 a.m. EST | |
Craig Wright is threatening to personally sue Bitcoin Core developers Wladimir van der Laan, Pieter Wuille, Jonas Schnelli, Marco Falke, and Samuel Dobson. Wright sent a pre-litigation ("Letter Before Action") letter to Bitcoin Core developers demanding access to two Mt. Gox-era wallets holding 110,957 bitcoin. He is insisting that the developers fork bitcoin in order to recover his "stolen" funds. Continued legal trolling: - Self-proclaimed bitcoin creator Craig Wright said he lost bitcoin stored in Mt. Gox related wallets in 2020.
- The Letter Before Action sent by Wright's legal counsel, Ontier LLP, states that Bitcoin Core contributors must transfer access to the bitcoin held by the two wallets to Tulip Trading Ltd. (TTL), a Seychelles-based company owned by Craig Wright.
- Wright's attorneys mentioned in the letter that "hackers stole private keys for addresses operated on behalf of TTL and deleted keys on Craig Wright's computer to bar him from re-accessing it."
- Stephen Palley, a lawyer who is not representing any parties, told Coindesk: "I'm hopeful that the Bitcoin community will come together as it has in the past and provide support to any developer who has received these letters. We've already heard from some people who are outraged by this maneuver."
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Craig Wright demands access to Mt.Gox-era wallets containing 110,957 $BTC from #bitcoincore developers. Coindesk | |
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) urged regulators to prevent tax evasion through crypto. - The report includes recommendations for financial authorities to significantly reduce crimes involving illicit transactions and tax evasion by limiting lawyers, tax advisers, notaries, and accountants who act as professional enablers.
- The OECD also mentioned that such enablers often use obscure financial structures such as cryptos to assist in white-collar crimes.
- The OECD's report coincided with United Nations-issued recommendations regarding the prevention of tax abuse and illegal financial flows.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): The #OECD published a report urging authorities to disrupt tax evasion and other financial crimes by preventing professional enablers. Law360 | |
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The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) announced its intention to amend its guidance for crypto companies known as the Travel Rule. It now addresses stablecoins and disintermediated peer-to-peer transactions, among other details. We previously dedicated an entire edition of Inside Cryptocurrency to the Travel Rule. Preventing crime: - The anti-money laundering rules of the FATF require that U.S. crypto companies implement new Travel Rule processes that will be formalized by June 2021.
- The Travel Rule has been criticized for its emphasis on data-sharing requirements with the U.S. Treasury.
- It is, nevertheless, essential to prevent crypto from being used to anonymously fund criminal activity.
- A spokesperson of the U.S. Treasury said that the FATF had updated the rule to help countries and Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) understand and prevent money laundering.
- FATF President Marcus Pleyer said, "We are now consulting on updated guidance on progress within the virtual assets sector, including the travel rule... We hope to get feedback from the key industry players... and I'm confident that we will approve it in June so that it can then be handed out to the industry after that."
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): FATF shared the intention to amend #TravelRule, guidance for #crypto and related companies according to an announcement. Final amendments are expected by June. Coindesk | |
Jason Calacanis (left), Brian Armstrong (middle), Tim Draper (right) Coinbase crypto exchange disclosed its previously confidential SEC Form S-1 filing to the public. Coinbase originally filed with the SEC in December 2020 in confidence. Its $100B+ direct listing on NASDAQ will begin trading within a few weeks. More: - According to the document, in 2020, Coinbase turned into a remote-first company having "no headquarters" (similar claims have been made by its rival, Binance exchange).
- The development is a significant step towards the exchange's goal of direct listing on NASDAQ with two classes of stock.
- The filings reveal that Coinbase recorded a 136% revenue increase in 2020 on the previous year.
- According to the exchange's website, Coinbase currently serves more than 43M users in 100 countries, with an annual trading volume of approximately $455B.
- The exchange paid its CEO Brian Armstrong $60M in 2020. Armstrong's compensation package is twice as much as JPMorgan (NASDAQ:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon and Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) CEO Tim Cook.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): Crypto exchange @coinbase reveals its private S-1 filing to the public before its upcoming direct @Nasdaq listing. The Block Crypto | |
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Igor Kolomoisky A London judge said that errors made in the bitcoin investment disclosure of former PrivatBank owner Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov were not serious. - The largest bank in Ukraine, known as PJSC Commercial Bank Privatbank, submitted a bid for Kolomoisky's cross-interrogation due to inaccuracies in disclosing a $50M bitcoin investment in a Georgian mining operation.
- However, a judge of the High Court of Justice in London denied the state-owned bank's bid, saying the errors were minor.
- The bank's former owner and Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky and his business partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov face accusations of scamming the lender out of $1.9B in a loan scheme.
- The FBI also investigated Kolomoisky over allegations of laundering money into the U.S. after he sold PrivatBank to the Ukrainian government in 2016. Kolomoisky earned a bailout worth $5.6B, at a time when the country was narrowly surviving on IMF loans.
- In 2020, the FBI raided two offices affiliated with Kolomoisky in Miami and Cleveland.
- The 10-week trial of the case would start by the end of this year or early 2022.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): A judge said that errors made in the #bitcoin $BTC investment disclosure of Ex PrivatBank Igor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov were not serious. Law360 | |
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- A Bloomberg article published on Feb. 25 indicates that Kraken crypto exchange is considering raising funds at a $10B valuation from investors like Fidelity, General Atlantic, and Tribe Capital.
- San Francisco-based crypto custodian Anchorage, which became an OCC-approved national bank, raised $80M in a Series C fundraise led by Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC, Andreesen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Lux, and Indico.
- Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro plans to announce a new "digital bolivar." Maduro's failed oil-backed digital currency, the PETRO, was not considered legal tender.
- The Japanese Rehabilitation Trustee overseeing the 2014 Mt. Gox bankruptcy announced that creditors can vote on the proposed Rehabilitation Plan ahead of a meeting on Oct. 20, 2021.
- Arca filed a SEC notice to establish a bitcoin investment trust with a minimum investment for accredited investors of $25K.
- Canada-based CI Global Asset Management has filed and obtained a receipt for a preliminary prospectus concerning a possible Canadian Ethereum ETF: the CI Galaxy Ethereum ETF.
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| | Curated by Associated Press fanboy, eye-strained news terminal watcher, and bitcoin follower since $1, Aaron Wise. Temporarily listening to news squawk boxes in Florida while awaiting the construction of cryptopia. | | Editor | Charlotte Hayes-Clemens is an editor and writer based in Vancouver. She has dabbled in both the fiction and non-fiction world, having worked at HarperCollins Publishers and more recently as a writing coach for new and self-published authors. Proper semi-colon usage is her hill to die on. | |
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