| Bitcoin | $57,174 | 7 day: +17% | | Ethereum | d$1,960 | 7 day: +8% | | All crypto | $1.74T | 7 day: +17% | | Bitcoin dominance | 61.3% | 7 day: +0.1% | Prices as of 10 a.m. EST
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 Arthur Hayes' blog BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes, who illegally operated a derivatives trading platform and violated anti-money laundering rules, has resurfaced with a blog post. - Arthur Hayes' Medium post published on Feb. 18 titled "Walkaway" arrives after months of public silence.
- This tweet announcing the post is his first public statement since September 2020.
- On Feb. 4, Vanity Fair published an article on Hayes, "The Rise and Fall of a Bitcoin Billionaire."
- In the article, writer Adam Ciralsky indicated that Hayes could be spending time in his Singapore home, avoiding U.S. law enforcement after his October 2020 indictment.
- Hayes made no mention in his blog of the multibillion-dollar lawsuit and criminal charges for which he is wanted by U.S. authorities. He did not say where he is located.
- He indicated that he will write more in the future.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): The co-founder of @BitMEX Arthur Hayes has reappeared with a blog post after months of public silence. His location is unknown. He is wanted by U.S. criminal authorities. The Block Crypto 
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 SBI Branch The CEO of Japan's SBI (8473.T) indicated that he is working on a new crypto joint venture (JV) with foreign financial companies. - The Japanese financial conglomerate is aiming to expand its crypto footprint.
- CEO Yoshitaka Kitao told Reuters that he has made at least two deals for the JV, which remain undisclosed for now.
- Kitao mentioned hedge funds and institutional investors' interest in cryptocurrency. He specifically cited Tesla's recent $1.5B bitcoin purchase.
- SBI has a long-standing partnership with Ripple (XRP). Kitao has been a Ripple board member since 2019.
- SBI acquired a crypto exchange called Tao Tao in October 2020. It also obtained a 90% stake in B2C2, a London-based crypto market maker, in December 2020.
- Instead of taking minor stakes in various companies, Kitao said he is now considering "large-scale" M&A.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): SBI Holdings @sbigroup CEO @yoshitaka_kitao spoke with @Reuters about another #crypto joint venture with two deals already underway. Reuters
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The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) fined BitPay for sanctions violations and accepting digital currency payments from North Korea and Iran. BitPay failed to comply with sanctions for certain transactions starting in June 10, 2013 through Sept. 16, 2018. The bitcoin payment processor agreed to pay over $507,000 to the Treasury Dept. 's OFAC to settle findings that BitPay transacted with U.S. sanctioned countries such as North Korea, Iran, and Sudan, using digital currencies. More: - The settlement agreement, published on Feb. 18 to the U.S. Treasury's website, mentions that the Atlanta, Georgia-based company has civil liability for more than 2,000 apparent violations of sanctions programs. The base civil monetary penalty amount for such a case could have been close to $2,255,000, but the OFAC showed BitPay special consideration as the apparent violations were non-egregious.
- In a web notice of the decision, the OFAC noted that various sanction compliance deficiencies allowed BitPay customers residing in Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria to inappropriately transact with U.S-based merchants.
- A BitPay spokesperson said the violations were a "very small number" of its overall transaction volumes.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): U.S. Treasury, OFAC agree to $507,000 fine for BitPay's crypto sanctions violations from 2013 to 2018. Law360
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Purpose Bitcoin ETF (BTCC-U.TO), North America's first exchange-traded bitcoin fund, started trading this week on Toronto's Stock Exchange (TSX). - Purpose Bitcoin ETF trading commenced on Toronto Stock Exchange on Feb. 18 under two different ticker symbols (BTCC-B.TO) and (BTCC-U.TO), according to TSX.
- Purpose Investments Inc. (the trustee, manager, and portfolio manager of the ETF) said in its press release that the units represent physically-settled bitcoin.
- Purpose Investments also explained that the Candian company, Ether Capital Corporation, is its special consultant for the ETF.
- The Purpose Bitcoin ETF has become the first North American bitcoin exchange-traded product for bitcoin.
- It allows investors to buy and hold with less premium-to-NAV (net asset value) than trusts. The ETF does charge a 1% annual management fee.
- The asset management company answered other common questions in its prospectus.
Click to tweet the following text (you can edit it before sending): The first North American #bitcoin ETF $BTCC.U by @PurposeInvest starts trading on @tsx_tsxv Bloomberg
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Binance's native currency, Binance Coin (BNB), has become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Its price has more than septupled this month. More: - Binance Coin (BNB) exceeds the market capitalization of the next-biggest tokens by over $10B, according to data disclosed to Binance-owned CoinMarketCap.
- Binance Coin is the native token of the Changpeng Zhao-led crypto exchange and its various subsidiaries.
- Zhao and Binance acquired hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Binance Coin (BNB) from 2017 to 2018 under the original promise of using corporate operating profits to buyback BNB and reward investors. They maintain that BNB is not a security.
- Some commentators credit some of BNB's recent gains to a relatively new BNB-based DeFi project called PancakeSwap, which has outpaced similar DeFi marketplaces like UniSwap.
The Block Crypto
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- Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) announced its solution to the battle between gamers and miners for GPU processors: distinct lines of processors.
- KPMG, BitGo, and Coin Metrics have launched a combined offering to manage public blockchain "network risks."
- Gemini has launched Cryptopedia, a free crypto educational platform.
- Crypto donations to Fidelity Charitable grew 115% in 2020, with crypto donations totaling $28M.
- Elon Musk defended Tesla's (NASDAQ:TSLA) recent bitcoin purchase: "when fiat currency has negative real interest, only a fool wouldn't look elsewhere," and "bitcoin is almost as bs as fiat money…[it] is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash."
- Bill Gates does not own any bitcoin and has "taken a neutral view." He supports "moving money to a digital form and getting transaction costs down," but he said that bitcoin is "mania" driven.
- Investor Jeffrey Gundlach tweeted that bitcoin may be a better asset in today's market than gold, naming the digital currency the possible "Stimulus Asset."
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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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