Two money launderers were sentenced to prison for laundering more than 16 million euros worth of Bitcoin. One received a two year sentence and the other received a two and a half year sentence. According to an announcement from the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service, a husband and wife from Hilversum anonymously purchased millions of euros worth of Bitcoin in exchange for cash. They hid their trades from tax authorities in the Netherlands.
More on Darknetlive• 2020-10-28
DBS, Singapore's biggest bank, is launching a fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchange, The Block has learned. Dubbed "DBS Digital Exchange," the trading platform would allow users to trade in four crypto assets — bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), and XRP — against Singapore dollar (SGD), Hong Kong dollar (HKD), Japanese yen (JPY) and U.S. dollar (USD).
More on The Block• 2020-10-27
According to reports on Oct 26. 2020, nearly $24 million in value has been siphoned from the liquidity pools of Harvest Finance, a major decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol. Harvest Finance subsequently confirmed the hack, stating that the protocol is “working actively on the issue of mitigating the economic attack on the Stablecoin and BTC pools.” According to the initial tweet, the attacker swapped the stolen crypto for renBTC (rBTC) and used Tornado Cash to mix with other funds.
More on BeInCrypto• 2020-10-26
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) plan to test a central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of this year. BIS official Benoit Coeure revealed the plan on Sunday at the Bund Summit held in Shanghai, as reported by the Chinese news outlet The Paper. Coeure said the Swiss central bank and the BIS would issue a CBDC "in the proof-of-concept stage" by the end of 2020.
More on The Block• 2020-10-26
Mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies has traditionally been hindered by their limited utility as an instrument of exchange due to volatility, cost and speed to transact. However, the promise of advanced technological platforms offers the possibility of mainstreaming digital currencies. According to a survey by the Bank for International Settlements, one in 10 central banks – representing approximately one-fifth of the world's population – expect to issue their own digital currencies within the next three years.
More on PayPal Press• 2020-10-21
A hacking group is donating stolen money to charity in what is seen as a mysterious first for cyber-crime that's puzzling experts. Darkside hackers claim to have extorted millions of dollars from companies, but say they now want to "make the world a better place". In a post on the dark web, the gang posted receipts for $10,000 in Bitcoin donations to two charities. One of them, Children International, says it will not be keeping the money. The move is being seen as a strange and troubling development, both morally and legally.
More on BBC News• 2020-10-20
Decentralized information storage project Filecoin has finally launched its mainnet at block 148,888. The launch comes three years after Filecoin’s initial coin offering, which raised over $205 million in 2017 and was one of the largest token sales that year. The process towards Filecoin’s launch has been marked by numerous delays and a recent investor revolt against Protocol Labs, the network’s parent company.
More on The Block• 2020-10-15
MetaMask users can now swap tokens directly from their wallet. Swaps combines multiple decentralized exchange aggregators, professional market makers, and individual DEXs — like AirSwap — to ensure MetaMask users always get the best price with the lowest network fees.
More on MetaMask Medium• 2020-10-13
Three years ago, the founders of the $10 billion Stone Ridge Asset Management had a problem. Several of the advisory firm’s founders and senior employees were buying bitcoin at such a rate it became obvious the purchases needed to be looked at more closely by the firm’s auditors. As word got out that Stone Ridge’s staff was personally investing in bitcoin at such a scale the firm’s clients increasingly wanted to express the same thesis. As Stone Ridge co-founder, Robert Gutmann, put it, that thesis is a belief in “the long term growth of an open-source monetary system—in assets like bitcoin.”
More on Forbes• 2020-10-13
Algorand, a proof-of-stake blockchain platform founded by zero-knowledge proof inventor Silvio Micali, boasts a team of advisors that includes MIT economics researchers, game theory experts, several Turing Award winners, and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant. Now, it can add a Nobel Laureate to the mix. Today, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences to Algorand advisor Paul Milgrom. Together with his Stanford colleague and co-awardee Robert Wilson, Milgrom designed new types of auctions for markets that don’t typically lend themselves to auctions, such as radio frequencies.
More on Decrypt• 2020-10-12
Following recent legal filings in the United States, and with the full approval of the Founders, changes have been made to the leadership of 100x Group, the holding group for HDR Global Trading Limited, owner and operator of the BitMEX platform. Vivien Khoo, Chief Operating Officer of 100x Group, will become Interim CEO, assuming additional operational responsibilities. She joined the company in March 2019, moving from her role as Managing Director, Asia Pacific Compliance at Goldman Sachs. Previously, she held positions at the Hong Kong Securities & Futures Commission.
More on BitMEX Blog• 2020-10-08
A new report from Europol cited two bitcoin wallet services — Wasabi and Samurai — as transacting tools that are seeing increasing use among Darkweb actors. The details were included in Europol's Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment, which was published on October 5, which touched on several topics related to cryptocurrency.
More on The Block• 2020-10-06