Wednesday, May 21
ISIS Is Not Hoarding $300M in Bitcoin War-Chest, Reports Chainalysis
25May Antoinette TurnerBy Antoinette TurnerNo Comments
PR Wire

ISIS Is Not Hoarding $300M in Bitcoin War-Chest, Reports Chainalysis

Over the past week, the comments of a counter-terrorism think tank Director have indicated that ISIS has been using cryptocurrency platforms to conceal donations and bypass financial security measures and could be hoarding close to 300 million in Bitcoin. The Think Tank expert initially made the revelation after identifying an increase in advertising for BTC donations. However, a recent report from Chainalysis suggests that there is no evidence of ISIS's 300million BTC war-chest and they are not impressed with the mainstream media's conflation of the Director's comments.  The articles reporting the supposed war-chest took their lead from the comments of Hans-Jakob Schindler, Director of the CEP (the Counter Extremism Project, a specialist think tank tracking the trend of terrorism financ...
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Innovation Cycles, Crypto Venture Funds and Institutional Investors
25May Annette WeberBy Annette WeberNo Comments
PR Wire

Innovation Cycles, Crypto Venture Funds and Institutional Investors

Famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) stirred up some discussion last week by dividing crypto history into cycles that look something like this: The price goes up, which leads to new interest, which triggers new ideas and use cases, which leads to new startups and funding, which leads to product launches that bring in more people. Rinse and repeat.   This would pass as a simple “hunh, cool” if it weren’t for their recent fund raise. Crypto Fund II hoped to reach $450 million; in April, the firm announced that the raise closed at $515 million. Given that the average VC deal size in 2019 was $3.5 million, that’s a hefty amount of firepower with which to kick off the beginning of the fourth cycle. Source: Andreessen HorowitzYou’re reading Crypto Long & Short...
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Elon Musk tried to help explain Bitcoin to J.K. Rowling in a bizarre Twitter exchange, and said central banks have made cryptocurrency ‘look solid by comparison’ | Currency News | Financial and Business News
25May Antoinette TurnerBy Antoinette TurnerNo Comments
PR Wire

Elon Musk tried to help explain Bitcoin to J.K. Rowling in a bizarre Twitter exchange, and said central banks have made cryptocurrency ‘look solid by comparison’ | Currency News | Financial and Business News

AP/Business Insider JK Rowling asked Twitter to explain bitcoin to her, and was bombarded by replies — including from Elon Musk. Rowling ultimately gave up engaging with the topic, a decision Musk supported. In the process, he took a swipe at conventional central banks, which he said had undermined their credibility and made even bitcoin "look solid by comparison." Banks like the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank have pumped trillions of dollars into the global economy via quantitative easing programs. Many of these have been expanded in an attempt to mitigate the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Elon Musk intervened in a Twitter thread to attempt to explain bitcoin to J.K. Rowling, and ended up attacking central bank...
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Spiritual Reflections on the Bitcoin Halving
24May Annette WeberBy Annette WeberNo Comments
PR Wire

Spiritual Reflections on the Bitcoin Halving

Allen Farrington writes at Quillette, Areo and Merion West, as well as extensively on Medium, where he has several much longer essays on Bitcoin, finance, economics and related topics. His collected writings can be found here. He lives in Edinburgh.  At approximately 8:23 p.m. GMT on Monday, May 11, the 630,000th Bitcoin block was mined, the first to offer the reward to its successful miner of 6.25 bitcoin rather than 12.5, as has been the case for the past four years. You may have caught wind of this, what with #BitcoinHalving briefly trending on Twitter, an uptick in coverage of Bitcoin in the media over the past few days, or for some other reason. There are good ways and bad ways to describe “the halving.” Or rather, there are ways that are factually true and then there are ways that ar...
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Genesis Trading Buys Crypto Custodian Vo1t in Bid to Become Prime Broker
24May Annette WeberBy Annette WeberNo Comments
PR Wire

Genesis Trading Buys Crypto Custodian Vo1t in Bid to Become Prime Broker

Digital currency trader and lender Genesis Global Trading is moving toward full-service prime brokerage with the acquisition of crypto custodian Vo1t, the company announced Thursday. The New York-based trading firm, which is a subsidiary of CoinDesk parent firm Digital Currency Group, acquired Vo1t to begin developing a full suite of prime brokerage services under one roof including lending, trading and custody. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  “We’re coming at this after having a successful business on the trading and lending side,” said Genesis CEO Michael Moro. “The goal is for clients to be able to do any and all activities with Genesis.”  Moro wouldn’t put a figure on the number of liquidity providers Genesis is aiming to plug into.  “The answer is as many as we can that we ...
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Bitcoin surges above $8,000 for the first time in 2 months ahead of a key halving in the crypto markets | Currency News | Financial and Business News
24May Antoinette TurnerBy Antoinette TurnerNo Comments
PR Wire

Bitcoin surges above $8,000 for the first time in 2 months ahead of a key halving in the crypto markets | Currency News | Financial and Business News

Reuters Bitcoin crossed the $8,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday since March ahead of "bitcoin halving" that will take place on May 12.  Some analysts expect the bitcoin halving to increase prices. "After the two previous halvings, we've seen the price reach an all-time high within 3-9 months — which would be $20,000 in this case," one analyst said. Track the price of bitcoin live here. Bitcoin surged 11% on Wednesday and crossed $8,000 the first time since early March as analysts said a key deadline that will reduce the amount of units is helping boost prices.  Bitcoin is currently trading around $8,625 as of 12.55 p.m ET.  The last time it was anywhere near this level was in March, before stock markets crashed and when the impact of coronavirus began to spread.  Analysts ...
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Caught Up in Steem Squabble, Bittrex to Return Tokens Diverted in Hard Fork
24May Annette WeberBy Annette WeberNo Comments
PR Wire

Caught Up in Steem Squabble, Bittrex to Return Tokens Diverted in Hard Fork

Bittrex really didn’t want to get involved in the war that’s currently raging within the Steem community. Richie Lai, co-founder of the U.S.-based crypto exchange, posted an announcement late on Wednesday saying his firm would return – reluctantly, it seems – million of dollars worth of disputed cryptocurrency back to a Steem wallet no one knows who controls. After the 23.6 million steem tokens were confiscated from community dissenters in a tit-for-tat Steem hard fork Wednesday, they were quickly diverted to Bittrex by an unknown individual (or individuals) in the hope they would be returned to their original 64 owners – currently all persona non grata at the blockchain project. The controversial hoard is worth a little over $5 million at press time and was worth approximately $6.3 milli...
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AI, Machine Learning & Big Data for Banks & Financial Institutions
24May Alonzo CollinsBy Alonzo CollinsNo Comments
Blockchain

AI, Machine Learning & Big Data for Banks & Financial Institutions

 Claiming Back Your VATAll attendees of a London based course incur VAT as a part of the cost of attendance.Euromoney Learning have partnered with VAT IT to allow you the unique opportunity to recoup the VAT incurred.Using VAT IT's extensive experience and simple sign-up and refund process, every invoice can be turned into cash for your business.Claim the VAT that's rightfully yours in four simple steps: 1. Register your interest 2. Sign a few simple documents 3. VAT IT processes your claim 4. Receive your refund Why choose VAT IT VAT IT h...
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Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones says he’s loading up on bitcoin (GBTC) | Currency News | Financial and Business News
24May Antoinette TurnerBy Antoinette TurnerNo Comments
PR Wire

Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones says he’s loading up on bitcoin (GBTC) | Currency News | Financial and Business News

REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz Billionaire investor Paul Tudor Jones is buying bitcoin, Bloomberg reported Thursday. The hedge fund manager said his fund may hold as much as a low single-digit percentage of its assets in bitcoin futures to help protect against a rise in inflation, according to the report. Paul Tudor Jones is the founder and CEO of Tudor Investment Corp., which managed $38.4 billion as of March 30, according to data from the SEC. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones is buying bitcoin, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Jones told his clients in a market outlook note that he believes bitcoin will serve as a hedge against a jump in inflation he thinks is coming, due to central banks printing money and sharply expanding their ...
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Russia Considering Draconian Rules for Illegal Crypto Operations
24May Annette WeberBy Annette WeberNo Comments
PR Wire

Russia Considering Draconian Rules for Illegal Crypto Operations

Harsh new rules making many uses of digital assets punishable with fines or prison might soon become law in Russia.  New draft bills setting out how Russia should regulate cryptocurrencies were sent to the country’s parliament, the State Duma, earlier this week. Although the official website for the planned legislation hasn’t been updated yet, the two documents have been published in the OrderCom Telegram channel and were confirmed as genuine by sources of Russian news outlet RBK.  The legislative proposals were reportedly written by staff at the Digital Economy think tank and the Skolkovo business accelerator. They seek a new version of the bill on digital assets, which has been stuck in the Duma for more two years now, as well as crypto-focused additions to the country’s criminal code. T...
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