Man who made off with $147 million in Bitcoin goes missing

The CFTC alleges that Benjamin Reynolds scammed his customers out of $147 million worth of Bitcoin in 2017.

OneCoin Marketing Scam Operator Fined $72,000 in Singapore

A Singapore man was fined $72,000 for operating a multi-level marketing scheme linked to the Ponzi scheme OneCoin. On Wednesday, a 52-year old man named Fok Fook Seng of Singapore was found guilty of operating a multi-level marketing scam linked to the cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme OneCoin. Since its inception, the  OneCoin crypto scam has defrauded investors of more than $4.4 billion. According to local news outlet Channel News Asia, Fok was convicted for promoting the MLM scheme between January 2016 and June 2017 and was fined 100,000 Singapore dollars (~$72,000).  The police first pressed charges against him in April 2019 under the Multi-Level Marketing and Pyramid Selling Prohibition Act, which they said was the first of its kind. Promoting and selling the scheme at large-scale events Fok successfully managed to promote his MLM scheme through online seminars he conducted on his Facebook page OneLife One World Team Singapore.

Bitcoin 90-Day Active Supply Soars to Pre-2017 Bull Run Level: Report

An on-chain metric which has been declining since 2017 is now signaling a bullish trend, analysts from Stack Funds say. A new report analyzing on-chain activity says that Bitcoin (BTC) is now due for a bullish phase based on supply movements. Published by asset manager Stack Funds on July 2, the findings suggest that 90-day active supply is dictating bullish potential for BTC/USD. BTC price to rise “sooner rather than later” Publishing an accompanying chart for the metric, Stack argued that it has important implications for historical price behavior. “The data provides an indication of two folds.

NFT token sales hit $100 million as virtual economy booms

Total non-fungible token (NFT) sales have reached $100m since 2017, as they form the underpinnings of a growing virtual economy.

‘Boring’ Bitcoin Hits Multiple Year-to-Date Highs

Bitcoin hit new heights on a variety of metrics today, despite some characterising the cryptocurrency as ‘boring’. After weeks of uninspired price action, Bitcoin hit new yearly records today on a variety of metrics: new addresses, active addresses, hourly transaction count and hourly spent outputs. Glassnode CTO Rafael Schultze-Kraft posted on twitter listing the achievements: Quite the on-chain activity on #Bitcoin today –Hourly New Addresses: 2-year highHourly Active Addresses: 1-year highHourly Transaction Count: 10-month highHourly Spent Outputs with Lifespan 24h: All-time high🔥 pic.twitter.com/QrHExLQAgo— Rafael Schultze-Kraft (@n3ocortex) July 2, 2020 Looking up your address Bitcoin hasn’t seen this number of new or active addresses since the bull run in 2017.

Bitcoin Price Closes Its Third Best Q2 in History with 42% Gains

Following an increase of 42% during Q2 2020, Bitcoin’s closing price of $9,140 was the third-highest position the asset has seen at the end of a quarter, trailing only to Q2 2019 and Q4 2017.

Why This Major Crypto Could Soon Crater to Early-2017 Lows

Litecoin is one of many crypto tokens that has been struggling to garner any upwards momentum in recent times.

Guarda Wallet: Seamless User Experience And Superior Security

[Featured Content] Guarda was officially registered in the European Union back in 2017 and has been focusing on building an ecosystem of blockchain-related products ever since.

Bitcoin Dormant Supply Metric Mirrors 2016 Run-Up to $20K BTC Price

61% of the Bitcoin supply has stayed in the same place for a year or more — the only time that happened was before its all-time highs. Bitcoin (BTC) hodlers are preparing for a bull run just like the one that led to $20,000 all-time highs in 2017, one metric suggests. According to on-chain monitoring resource Glassnode on June 28, the proportion of the Bitcoin supply that has not left its wallet in a year or longer reflects 2016. Dormant BTC channels 2016 Despite a hectic year for Bitcoin price action, the data shows that over 61% of the supply remained dormant through highs and lows. This is a record, US exchange Kraken business development director Dan Held added.  Glassnode noted that early 2016 likewise recorded similar behavior among hodlers.

Bitcoin's upcoming bull run might be similar to 2017's bull run

The 2020 Bitcoin bull run might mirror the 2017 bull run. While some know and understand the "Lambo and moon" memes, others have forgotten it, however, there are some that don't relate to these words The post Bitcoin's upcoming bull run might be similar to 2017's bull run appeared first on AMBCrypto.

Uber & Robinhood Angel Investor: 99% of Crypto Projects Are Garbage

In 2017 and 2018, thousands of entrepreneurs were attempting to launch their own crypto project to capitalize on the bubble-like conditions.

The Great Estonian Exodus — Crypto Firms Are Leaving Estonia

After the great rise in national crypto regulation in Estonia, the new European Union laws have forced the crypto industry to leave the country. Back in 2017, the Estonian government rocked the legislative side of the crypto world when they introduced a raft of new laws designed to support crypto projects.

Bitcoin Price To $318,500 By October 2021 According To This Model

Popular cryptocurrency YouTuber recently posted a chart illustrating that if Bitcoin repeats its previous significant bull run from 2017, its price could exceed $300,000 by the end of 2021.

DOJ Indicts Founder of Anti-Money Laundering Bitcoin Project for Money Laundering

Rowland Marcus Andrade, the founder of AML Bitcoin, was indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges related in part to an initial coin offering conducted in 2017 and 2018.

Bitcoin's present institutional interest the 'tip of the iceberg'

Bitcoin has a long history of proving its doubters wrong and such was the case with the bull run in 2017.

Ripple Exec: Slow Response on Blockchain Could be 'Potential Catastrophe' for US

Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen discussed US regulators’ ignorance towards regulating the blockchain and crypto space and how it is helping China. In a recent interview with Wall Street Journal reporter Paul Vigna, Ripple’s co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen said that the United States has been “slow to the game” in terms of experimenting, implementing and regulating the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry. Larsen said that the US must change its viewpoint towards blockchain and cryptocurrency as the industry is already past the 2017 and 2018 hype.

Judge Certifies Investor Class in $70m Pot ICO Lawsuit

Paragon Coin will face federal claims from a class-action lawsuit alleging that the firm’s $70 million ICO from 2017 violated securities laws. A Californian federal judge has certified an investor class in a lawsuit alleging that the cannabis crypto firm Paragon Coin Inc violated securities laws in its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) that raised $70 million. Paragon Coin promoted their ‘PRG’ tokens as comprising a currency for the cannabis industry and hired popular rapper The Game to promote the offering $70m crypto cannabis ICO to face federal claims On June 24, US District Judge Jeffrey White granted the plaintiffs’ motion in-part on federal claims, however, he denied applications for claims at the state level on the behalf of investors based outside of California. While the suit argues that ParagonCoin claimed to have issued PRG from its headquarters in California, Judge White noted that “the ICO giving rise to plaintiffs' claims and purchases of PRG tokens were conducted over the internet.” “Plaintiffs concede there may be class members in all 50 states and concede that laws governing the state law claims at issue differ among jurisdictions in such a way that a true conflict exists,” the judge added. Paragon Coin promoted by The Game The class-action was first brought against ParagonCoin in January 2018, with investor Astley Davy claiming that Paragon Coin should be forced to disgorge its earnings for allegedly failing to register its token sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).   The complaint noted that PRG had been promoted as a currency for the cannabis sector, adding that the firm had hired prominent rapper The Game to promote its token sale — who became embroiled in the lawsuit later that year. In November 2018, ParagonCoin was among two ICO issuers against which the SEC imposed civil penalties solely for failing to register their token sale — with the enforcement actions described as a “first

Messari: 1% Allocation From Institutions Could Drive BTC to $50,000

Crypto research firm Messari has estimated that Bitcoin could trade for $50,000 each if institutions allocate a low-single-digit portfolio percentage to BTC. Messari’s Ryan Watkins has crunched the numbers and predicts that if institutions allocate just 1% of their portfolios to Bitcoin, then BTC’s market cap could rise to above $1 trillion, Watkins’ research sought to calculate the impact on the BTC price of institutions following the famed hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones’ example of investing a “low single-digit percentage” into Bitcoin.   $1 trillion BTC market cap The researcher predicts that a tiny percentage allocation from endowments & foundations, family offices, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and mutual funds to BTC would result in around $480 billion in new money entering the Bitcoin markets. Citing research by crypto researcher Chris Burniske that found fiat flows into crypto to typically drove price gains of between two times and 25 times during the 2017 bull trend, Watkins estimates that “an aggregate 1% institutional allocation to Bitcoin can easily bring Bitcoin’s market cap above $1 trillion, or over $50,000 per BTC”. Estimated impact of 1% institutional allocation to BTC on Bitcoin’s market cap: Messari  Which institutions will lead the crypto charge? While Watkins believes that “Bitcoin may not need institutions to succeed” he says that “if Bitcoin is to become a globally adopted non-sovereign store of value, it will need to convince institutional investors to transfer wealth into the asset.” Watkins predicts that hedge funds will lead the institutional charge into crypto, however Ryan Radloff, the CEO of multi-billion custodian Kingdom Trust predicts that the $28 trillion US retirement sector will be the first-mover as consumers demand the ability to allocate digital assets toward their retirement portfolios. Other analysts believe that institutions will be brought into the fold by i

Here’s Why Bitcoin’s Slow Speed Hasn’t Given Rise to “Faster” Altcoins

Throughout 2017 and 2018, many altcoin-advocates pointed to Bitcoin’s lack of transactional speed as a reason why it would be usurped by other smaller alternatives.

Ethereum Network Fees Jump Above Bitcoin Transaction Fees for Two Weeks Straight

This week digital currency enthusiasts have been discussing network fees, specifically transaction fees associated with the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains.