Bitcoin
BTC-e Crypto Exchange Operator Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering in US
Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national who operated cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy charges in the US on May 3, according to a Bloomberg report. report.
BTC-e was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges between 2011 and 2017. According to prosecutors, it processed transactions worth $9 billion and had a customer base of more than 1 million worldwide.
Prosecutors added that BTC-e was used by cyber criminals to transfer, launder and store criminal proceeds from illegal activities. This included revenues from hacking, ransomware and narcotics distribution.
According to a statement from the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco, Vinnik operated the exchange until he was arrested and BTC-e was shut down by authorities. Vinnik, sentenced to five years in prison for money laundering in France in 2020, faces a maximum of 20 years in prison in the US
The statement noted:
“Vinnik operated BTC-e with the intent to promote these illegal activities and was responsible for a loss of at least $121 million.”
Prosecutors claim that BTC-e lacked a verification system and allowed criminals to convert illicit money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin anonymously. Prosecutors said the exchange was found to have manipulated Bitcoin traced back to a Russian military intelligence hacking unit responsible for releasing Democratic emails during the 2016 US election in an attempt to influence votes.
In recent months, there has been increasing scrutiny and regulatory action against cryptocurrency-related fraud in the US. Sam Bankman-Friedthe co-founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was sentenced to 24 years in prison in March for orchestrating a multibillion-dollar fraud scheme.
Additionally, Do Kwonthe founder of Terraform Labs, was found responsible for fraud in a civil case in April 2024. Terraform Labs went bankrupt in 2022, triggering a chain of bankruptcies and wiping out $40 billion from the market.
More recently, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, was sentenced this week to four months in prison for failures that allowed illicit activities, including criminal and terrorist financing, to occur on the platform. CZ had previously pleaded guilty while Binance paid the largest fine in history and agreed to be monitored.
Additionally, former Assistant Director of the SEC Division of Enforcement Jennifer Lee he said this week that if Donald Trump is elected president for a second term this year, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will continue to “define its space and catch up with crypto.”
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Bitcoin
‘This is huge’ — Billionaire Mark Cuban issues ‘incredible’ Bitcoin and crypto prediction amid price slump
Bitcoin
Bitcoin
came back with a vengeance this year when former President Donald Trump Cryptocurrency boosts US presidential election in November with ‘revolutionary’ plan.
The price of bitcoin has surged to more than its all-time high in recent months, surpassing $70,000 per bitcoin and triggering a wave of mega-optimistic predictions about the price of bitcointhough it fell again this week, falling below $65,000 after the Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady.
Now, as Elon Musk suddenly breaks his silence on bitcoin and cryptocurrenciesBillionaire investor Mark Cuban called a California plan to digitize 42 million car titles using blockchain an “incredible step forward” and “huge” for cryptocurrencies.
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Mark Cuban, famous Shark Tank investor and billionaire owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, has… [+] called a cryptocurrency update “amazing” amid bitcoin’s price slump.
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The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has digitized 42 million car titles using blockchain, it was reported by Reuters, through technology company Oxhead Alpha on the Avalanche blockchain and designed to detect fraud and facilitate the securities transfer process.
“This is an incredible development for crypto,” Cuban, best known as an investor on TV’s Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team, posted on X, joking that U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler could sue the state as part of his hostility toward cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
“The reason this is huge for crypto is because people who hold the tokens will have an app with an Avalanche wallet,” Cuban said. “Tens of millions of Californians having and using a crypto wallet in the next five years, or however long it takes, normalizes the use of wallets and crypto.”
John Wu, president of Avalanche developer Ava Labs, told Reuters that California’s DMV is “creating a wallet that you can download on your phone.”
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Bitcoin’s price has rallied this year, triggering a wave of bullish bitcoin price predictions from… [+] people like billionaire Mark Cuban.
Forbes Digital Assets
Last month, Cuban predicted that if the US dollar falls as the global reserve currency, bitcoin could become “a global ‘safe haven’” and a “global currency.” potentially sending the price of bitcoin to a much higher level.
According to Cuban, bitcoin could become what its most ardent supporters “envision” — a means “of protecting our economies… This is already happening in countries facing hyperinflation.”
The price of bitcoin has skyrocketed over the past year, largely due to the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, leading a bitcoin attack on Wall Street.
Bitcoin
MicroStrategy’s Cash Flow Amid Bitcoin Rally Raises Some Eyebrows
Analysts are starting to pay more attention than usual to Bitcoin-proxy’s underlying enterprise software business MicroStrategy Inc.
How to better invest cash generated from operations is what originally prompted co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor to turn to Bitcoin four years ago. Since then, the Tysons Corner, Va.-based company has adopted a two-pronged strategy of investing in the cryptocurrency instead of traditional assets like short-term Treasuries and ramping up its software operations.
Bitcoin
Large Bitcoin (BTC) Holders Added $5.4 Billion Worth of BTC in July, Data Shows
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Bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) Hits Six-Week High After Trump’s Pro-Crypto Speech
Bitcoin has retreated from a six-week high as investors shift their focus to speculation the U.S. may sell seized tokens just days after Donald Trump vowed to create a government stockpile of the cryptocurrency if he is elected president again.
The US transferred $2 billion worth of Bitcoin to a new digital wallet address on Monday, blockchain research firm Arkham said in a publish on social media platform X. Market analysis firms have speculated that the tokens are from the Silk Road marketplace, where customers used virtual currencies to buy illegal drugs and hacking tools before it was shut down.
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