US FTC Settles With Alleged Crypto Pyramid Scheme for $500,000

The United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has settled charges it filed in 2018 against an alleged crypto pyramid scheme involving four individuals. Terms of settlement According to an official statement on Aug. 22, the regulator permanently banned the defendants from multi-level marketing and misrepresenting investment opportunities and charged a total of over $500,000 as part of the settlement. In March 2018, the FTC first obtained a court order against Thomas Dluca, Eric Pinkston, Louis Gatto and Scott Chandler that stopped their misleading marketing practices and froze their assets. At…

The Bitcoin Price Just Did Something It’s NEVER Done Before

The bitcoin price just did something it has NEVER done before, and it’s great news for bulls who view crypto as a stock market hedge. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN Markets: Bitcoin has been hawked as a safe haven asset for quite some time now, with bulls crediting the rising price of the cryptocurrency in 2019 to macroeconomic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions arising out of the US-China trade war. Recent price action suggests that bitcoin might finally be operating as a real-time macroeconomic hedge, as pointed out by economist and…

The Bitcoin Price Just Did Something It’s NEVER Done Before

The bitcoin price just did something it has NEVER done before, and it’s great news for bulls who view crypto as a stock market hedge. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN Markets: Bitcoin has been hawked as a safe haven asset for quite some time now, with bulls crediting the rising price of the cryptocurrency in 2019 to macroeconomic uncertainties and geopolitical tensions arising out of the US-China trade war. Recent price action suggests that bitcoin might finally be operating as a real-time macroeconomic hedge, as pointed out by economist and…

Adoption Shortcut or Blockchain Purists’ Nightmare?

The major digital asset services platform Coinbase has recently announced the long-anticipated completion of a deal that has been in progress since at least May: the acquisition of Xapo’s institutional business. The move projects Coinbase Custody to the status of the world’s largest institutional digital asset custodian, securing more than $7 billion on behalf of over 120 clients globally. According to some estimates, Coinbase could now be holding over 5% of all Bitcoin in circulation. Xapo, founded by early crypto evangelist Wences Casares and reported to be stashing cryptocurrency in secure vaults hidden…

Ethereum Is in a Bear Market, But One Analyst Explains Why He’s Long

Nowadays, it seems everyone is bearish on Ethereum and its Ether token (ETH) except for Placeholder VC partner Chris Burniske, who, earlier this week, made the case for why he believes ETH/USD is a great long-term investment.  According to Burniske, the oft-cited narrative that the implosion of the ICO market led to Ether losing its use case is not entirely accurate. Rather, he posits that Ether is going through its first “mainstream bear market, just as Bitcoin did in 2014-2015.”  Given that hindsight always provides one with a clearer picture…

US Man Pleads Guilty to Running $25 Million Bitcoin Laundering Scheme

A Los Angeles man pleaded guilty to running a $25 million Bitcoin (BTC) money laundering scheme and sale of methamphetamine. Possible life sentence News outlet U.S. News reported on Aug. 23 that 25-year-old Kunal Kalra has pleaded guilty to charges including money laundering and distributing methamphetamines. Per the report, he could be sentenced to life in prison. The authorities allegedly claim that from 2015 through 2017 Kalra exchanged BTC and dollars, ran a Bitcoin ATM and admitted to making deals with drug dealers and other criminals. Sold meth to an…

The White House Just Blamed Bitcoin for America’s Opiate Crisis

The opioid epidemic is the new devil Bitcoin is being blamed for inflaming, to be added to the already long list of heinous crimes crypto is supposedly responsible for, like terrorism, money laundering, and trafficking. While it’s painfully clear that the U.S. dollar is a much more common tool for these unethical and illicit activities, that doesn’t stop the powers that be from continuing their propagandistic assault on financial freedom — ignoring their own central role in creating these massive problems, by pumping up the artificial monopolies that peddle them,…

The White House Just Blamed Bitcoin for America’s Opiate Crisis

The opioid epidemic is the new devil Bitcoin is being blamed for inflaming, to be added to the already long list of heinous crimes crypto is supposedly responsible for, like terrorism, money laundering, and trafficking. While it’s painfully clear that the U.S. dollar is a much more common tool for these unethical and illicit activities, that doesn’t stop the powers that be from continuing their propagandistic assault on financial freedom — ignoring their own central role in creating these massive problems, by pumping up the artificial monopolies that peddle them,…

This Week in CT Spain

As many of our readers probably know, Cointelegraph has a number of non-English branches, each covering news from different parts of the world.  In pursuit of the most complete and detailed picture of the global cryptocurrency industry, we present a series of weekly compilations of the freshest original articles from our colleagues, starting with Cointelegraph in Spanish. On Aug. 22, Cointelegraph in Spanish spoke with Daniel Pons Ayala, founder and CIO of Cresio, a platform that allows users to operate on multiple crypto exchanges simultaneously using the same application. Ayala…

Poloniex Pledges to Reimburse Flash Crash Losses, Victims Displeased

When a financial system like the crypto market lacks liquidity, a crash becomes inevitable. This was the case at the margin trading marketplace hosted by U.S.-based crypto exchange Poloniex toward the end of May, when the value of a lesser-known crypto asset, CLAM, experienced a sudden, sharp crash. This resulted in the generalized loss of approximately 1,800 Bitcoins (BTC). In what is its second attempt to make things right, Poloniex has said recently that, beginning later in August, it will start recovering the losses of the margin traders. The exchange…