Day: April 24, 2019

Two Men Plead Guilty to Selling Drugs for Crypto and Laundering $2.8 Million

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Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance announced on April 23 that two men plead guilty for illicitly selling steroids and controlled substances and laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies and Western Union payments. Callaway Crain, 35, and Mark Sanchez, also 35, were allegedly behind the darknet website “NextDayGear,” and also manufactured some of the substances they sold. Among their products were reportedly injectable and oral steroids, as well as medication to counteract the adverse effects of their use, including Xanax, Valium and Viagra. Per the announcement, the defendants shipped over…

French Banking Giant Issues $112 Million Bond on Public Ethereum Blockchain

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The blockchain bug seems to have bitten French banking giant Societe Generale to a point of no return. A little over a year ago, the third largest bank in France by assets unveiled a blockchain-based trade finance platform for all its corporate clients, the we.trade platform. Now Societe Generale has found another use case for blockchain technology – bond issuance. In a statement, the giant lender has revealed that its covered bond unit, Societe General SFH, has issued its first covered bond on the Ethereum blockchain worth over $110 million.…

Is Softbank Right to Stay Away From Crypto After Son’s $130M Bitcoin Loss?

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While Bitcoin (BTC) has always been about improving the world’s financial and political wellbeing, this nascent market isn’t all too kind. Over the course of 2018, retail investors across the board lost their shirts, industry employees were laid off, and crypto’s reputation and presence in the mainstream sadly fell off the map. Related Reading: FUD Storm: Mainstream Media Back Bashing Bitcoin the Moment Markets Move But no one entity or investor is likely hurting as much as Masayoshi Son. Reports from mainstream financial news outlets revealed Tuesday that the founder…

Is Softbank Right to Stay Away From Crypto After Son’s $130M Bitcoin Loss?

boss

While Bitcoin (BTC) has always been about improving the world’s financial and political wellbeing, this nascent market isn’t all too kind. Over the course of 2018, retail investors across the board lost their shirts, industry employees were laid off, and crypto’s reputation and presence in the mainstream sadly fell off the map. Related Reading: FUD Storm: Mainstream Media Back Bashing Bitcoin the Moment Markets Move But no one entity or investor is likely hurting as much as Masayoshi Son. Reports from mainstream financial news outlets revealed Tuesday that the founder…

Bitcoin Bears Fail Miserably in Stopping Huge Institutional Demand For Crypto

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As much as some cynics, such as traditional investor Mark Dow, like to paint it, institutions are heavily invested in the crypto space already. Sure, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) recently divulged that it intends to put its Bitcoin (BTC) futures vehicle on the backburner, but investment statistics accentuate that big names are flooding into this space. Related Reading: Binance Research Report Claims That Less Than 7% of Crypto is Owned by Institutions Institutions Are Still Throwing Money At Crypto Business Insider reports that “major financial institutions,” coupled with…

Lightning Labs Launches Lightning Network Client for Main Bitcoin Network

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Blockchain development company Lightning Labs announced that it released the first alpha version of its Lightning Network (LN) client for the main bitcoin (BTC) network, according to a blog post published on April 23. The announcement specifies that this is still an early version aimed at testers and developers willing to start experimenting with the software. The developers also warn that the users should not put more funds into the app than they are willing to lose. Furthermore, while the release supports macOS, Windows and Linux, the post also specifies…

Samsung Planning New Blockchain Mainnet Featuring Samsung Coin

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South Korean electronics giant Samsung may end up developing a public-private blockchain complete with its own cryptocurrency token, an anonymous source told crypto industry news outlet CoinDesk Korea on April 24. The project, part of an undertaking by the company’s dedicated blockchain division, would see a blockchain mainnet appear based on Ethereum (ETH), along with a new asset dubbed Samsung Coin. “We expect Samsung Coin to come out in the market, but the direction has not yet been decided,” the source, who is in touch with the plans, told the…

Bitcoin Crash Cost SoftBank Founder Masayoshi Son $130 million

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It seems Masayoshi Son was one of the many who were affected by the 2018 crypto price slump as it was reported on April 23, 2019, that he lost $130 million after selling off his bitcoin after the crash. Count Your Losses While the latest crypto market slump affected the entire industry, the most commonly discussed result was that which was felt by companies. Beyond enterprises, some individuals like Steve Wozniak were able to sell their cryptocurrency at the all-time highs. Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky. Masayoshi Son, the…

Lightning Labs Rolls Out Desktop App on Bitcoin Blockchain

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Photo: Lightning Labs Blog Lightning Labs, the company behind the network that maintains and contributes to Bitcoin‘s core decentralization property, has announced the launch of the alpha version of its Lightning App for desktop on Bitcoin mainnet. The desktop application leverages Neutrino that ‘allows non-custodial Lightning wallets to verify Bitcoin transactions with improved privacy, minimized trust, and without needing to sync the full Bitcoin blockchain’. According to Lightning Labs, the initiative corresponds to the principles of privacy, security, and self-determination. The company’s blog post reads: “For that we need to…

Bitfury Institutional Bitcoin Mining Fund Gains EU Regulator Approval

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Blockchain tech giant Bitfury has partnered with a Swiss investment firm to release a dedicated bitcoin mining fund for institutional investors, executives confirmed on Twitter on April 24. Bitfury, which develops various blockchain-related software along with mining services, confirmed that Final Frontier, in which it holds a minority stake, had gained regulatory approval for the fund from neighboring Liechtenstein. Focusing on institutions, the fund will give major investors access to the world of bitcoin mining, with Bitfury describing its creation as beneficial for the emerging sector. Bitfury will provide the…