A cryptocurrency mine in Butte Montana fired up its servers today, resuming business without its former owner, an alleged fraudster. After a legal appearance on the matter, part-owner Kevin Washington and operator Rick Tabish started up crypto mining business CryptoWatt once again, pulling the operation out of retirement, according to a Jan. 27 press release. Authorities closed down CryptoWatt after jailing its owner, Matthew Goettsche, on a separate fraud account totaling $722 million, the Montana Standard reported in December 2019. Shady ownership Although Goettsche owned more than 50% of CryptoWatt,…
Month: January 2020
Lawyers Ramp Up Pressure to Exhume Quadriga CEO’s Body
Lawyers representing the former users of the QuadrigaCX platform are doubling down on a formal request to exhume the exchange’s founder’s body. “Today, Representative Counsel issued a letter to the Honourable Bill Blair, Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, requesting an update on whether the RCMP will conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy on the alleged body of Gerald Cotten prior to Spring 2020,” the letter reads. The document notes that users can contact the minister directly via email “if they have further questions about the RCMP’s management…
Lawyers Ramp Up Pressure to Exhume Quadriga CEO’s Body
Lawyers representing the former users of the QuadrigaCX platform are doubling down on a formal request to exhume the exchange’s founder’s body. “Today, Representative Counsel issued a letter to the Honourable Bill Blair, Canadian Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, requesting an update on whether the RCMP will conduct an exhumation and postmortem autopsy on the alleged body of Gerald Cotten prior to Spring 2020,” the letter reads. The document notes that users can contact the minister directly via email “if they have further questions about the RCMP’s management…
Fearing Revolt, Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com Backs Down From Proposed BCH Mining Tax
According to a statement earlier today, Jan. 28, Roger Ver’s Bitcoin.com is backing down from the 12.5% mining tax on Bitcoin Cash they proposed along with other major BCH mining pools owing to the community’s overwhelming negative response to the proposal. Bitcoin.com’s position Last week, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) personalities proposed a 12.5% tax on mining rewards that would ostensibly go to funding network development. Now Bitcoin.com has rejected the proposed mining tax unless serious alterations are made: “As it stands now, Bitcoin.com will not go through with supporting any plan…
Ex-PBoC Governor Urges China to Join Global Conversation on Libra
A former senior official with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) believes the nation should join a global conversation about regulating stablecoins, with a particular focus on the Libra stablecoin. Min Zhu, former deputy governor at the PBoC, said China should join other nations in regulating the Facebook-led Libra stablecoin, according to a report by South China Morning Post. “I think it’s critically important to join the discussions and take part in coordinated global regulation of Libra,” Zhu said, noting there is still no specific timeline to launching the digital…
Narrative Watch: The Future of Crypto FUD
We’re over $9,000! That means a lot of good things, of course. But any price increase brings with it increased scrutiny and, yes, increased FUD. The question for this time around is whether the “fear, uncertainty and doubt” is the same old same old or something new. In this episode, @nlw looks at three emergent (and continued) areas of FUD, including: 1) accusations the bitcoin community is rooting for calamity as the safe haven narrative takes hold; 2) an updated “crypto is for criminals” narrative with more emphasis on state-level…
Bitcoin Buyers Absorb a Massive Influx of Selling Pressure; Bullish Continuation Inbound?
Bitcoin was able to incur some steady upwards momentum yesterday, which allowed its price to rapidly climb up to its 2020 highs of $9,200 before it faced some strong selling pressure that led it to plummet back towards $8,900. Buyer were able to absorb the majority of this selling pressure, however, and have allowed the cryptocurrency to recapture its position in the $9,000 region. Analysts are now noting that they anticipate BTC to see some further momentum, although its reaction to $9,200 will be critical for determining where it goes…
LocalBitcoins Quietly Suspends Accounts in Multiple Regions Without Notice
Popular Bitcoin (BTC) exchange platform LocalBitcoins is allegedly suspending user accounts with little fanfare, citing an “enhanced due diligence process.” Finland-based LocalBitcoins, one of major global peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto exchanges, has reportedly suspended user accounts in some countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia without warning, with some users being unable to withdraw their Bitcoin, Forbes reports Jan. 25. LocalBitcoins gives no public statement on the matter while the first reports came about a week ago According to the report, the first complaints started coming in last week, with…
Cardano Breaks 6-Month Slump, Signaling Potential Altcoin Revival
Today Cardano (ADA) broke above its 6-month range and now follows the movements of large-cap altcoins like Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCH), Dash (DASH) and Ethereum Classic (ETC). Does this mean that altcoins are entirely out of the woods? Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360 ADA/BTC breaks above its 6-month trading range Over the past 6 months, Cardano has traded in a sideways accumulation range between 0.000004-0.0000044 satoshis, while the resistance was found at 0.00000535-0.00000545 satoshis. ADA BTC 12-hour chart. Source: TradingView The 12-hour chart shows that the breakout occurred with…
Standard Chartered Invests More Money in Newly Rebranded Trade Finance Startup
Standard Chartered has invested an undisclosed sum into Contour, a Corda-based blockchain trade platform, to streamline transaction settlement processes. Contour, which rebranded from Voltron last week, recently tapped R3’s Asia chief Carl Wegner as CEO in the run-up to a full commercial launch of its digitized letter-of-credit (LoC) service, which it claims reduced processing time for LoCs from two weeks to just under a day in multiple pilot projects. Standard Chartered Global Head of Transaction Banking Lisa Robins said Tuesday the company streamlined the trade process by cutting down on…