Bitcoin Guru

A former U.S. state senator is subject to an arrest warrant issued by a court in Texas, over his alleged involvement in an initial coin offering (ICO) scam. Ex-state Sen. Dave Schmidt was previously under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) concerning a $4.3 million ICO scam, which saw unsuspecting investors from the U.S. and elsewhere embroiled in the scheme. The former Washington senator is said to have profited from the scheme, which raised investment for the issue of Meta 1 coins—tokens allegedly backed by either $1 billion in fine art or $2 billion in gold reserves. However, after raising millions through the ICO, it emerged that the tokens did not exist. A bench warrant was issued for Schmidt's arrest, along with accomplice Robert Dunlap after the pair failed to appear in court. Their appearance had been scheduled by video link due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, with both failing to appear at the agreed time. A third defendant has been given a ...

Russia has requested the home detention of Alexander Vinnik amid concerns over COVID-19, in its latest attempt to secure the extradition of the alleged money launderer. Vinnik is currently in the custody of authorities in France, after being implicated in a $4 billion BTC money laundering scandal. The former BTC-e founder has been the subject of an intense legal struggle in recent months, with several states, including his native Russia, asserting their own rights to prosecute. However, while Vinnik is wanted by authorities in France and the U.S. on money laundering charges, Russia has been attempting to secure his extradition on less serious charges. This is widely believed to be a legal tactic by Russia to extradite Vinnik, and to ensure he faces less serious charges in his home country. The latest extradition request, reported by Russian media, highlights concerns for Vinnik's safety amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Speaking to RT, former Russian agent Maria Butina said Vinnik has ex...

Since the end of last month, the principle web domain for digital currency exchange KuCoin, kucoin.com , has been out of commission. It was forced to be taken offline by the High Court of Singapore, which had ordered an injunction against the company on March 24. That measure was an attempt to keep the company from moving any funds or assets as KuCoin faces major legal issues and a corporate shakeup that have rocked its foundation. The domain, which had been registered through GoDaddy, will remain locked until the courts can determine whether or not it is safe to turn the key. GoDaddy confirmed in an email to Telegraph.com on March 30 that it was adhering to the court order and will have to wait to see what the next step is before making any changes. There are several issues plaguing the company that have regulators and investors worried. The company claimed to have received $20 million in Series A funding in November 2018, with companies such as IDG Capital, Neo Global Capital and Mat...

Governments around the world are careening toward a period of dramatic spending. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced another $2.3 trillion in lending programs on Thursday to stabilize America's coronavirus-stricken economy. The Bank of England announced it would likely extend billions of pounds to directly finance the government's crisis response. All this inspires inflation concerns around the globe, which appear to be driving demand for bitcoin (BTC) in some corners. "The non-stop quantitative easing process will finally impact the mid-term and long-term market," said Danny Deng, a leading member of both the China Blockchain Application Center and the National Internet Finance Association of China. "Bitcoin is designed for this kind of situation. So I'm optimistic about bitcoin's future." China is also expected to announce a stimulus package of its own. Deng said he expects the People's Bank of China to use a digital currency to distribute a sti...

Greenidge Generation, an upstate New York power plant that's using proprietary facilities to mine bitcoin (BTC), has sold up to 30 percent of its computing power to institutional buyers. The firm said in an announcement on Friday that the deal, brokered by BitOoda Digital, proceeded the sale of 106,000 terahashes per second (TH/s) of bitcoin mining power to undisclosed buyers consisting of hedge funds and family offices. The sale was enabled through the execution of BitOoda's hash contracts, which allow institutional buyers to get exposure to bitcoin mining without having to go through the process of purchasing and setting up equipment. At the Bitcoin network's current mining competition level, 1 TH/s of computing power would be able to produce about 0.00001709 BTC in a day. As such, the deal would give the buyers a daily yield of about 1.8 BTC – worth around $13,000 – in addition to having the corresponding hardware pledged as collaterals. That said, with the Bitcoin netwo...

Last month's crash in cryptocurrency prices has prompted manufacturers to sell inventories at a discount, in some cases as steep as 20 percent, over the past few weeks. Both the newest models and slightly older machines have been marked down. Complicating the matter is the imminent bitcoin halving in May that will reduce the network's mining reward by half, causing most miners to be less profitable if bitcoin's price doesn't increase significantly by then. For instance, DJ Miner, an overseas distributor for Shenzhen, China-based MicroBT, was advertising about $2,500 per unit of the manufacturer's flagship WhatsMiner M30S early last month. After bitcoin's March 12 crash – the worst sell-off in seven years – the price is now cut by 20 percent to $2,000 per unit. The WhatsMiner M20S, a less advanced but popular model that boosted MicroBT's market share against major rival Bitmain in 2019, is also seeing a 20 percent price cut from $1,679 to now $1,340, DJ Miner...

Telegram can't seem to catch a break, and the social communications company embroiled in a lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) might need to rethink its defense tactics. The SEC has continuously asserted that Telegram is offering illegal securities through the sale of its Gram digital currency, while the company counters that the tokens are not a form of security. Judge P. Kevin Castel, who is presiding over the case, has already determined that the SEC is most likely correct, and ordered Telegram to halt its token sales. Telegram wasn't ready to give in, though, and wanted the judge to determine that sales to investors outside the U.S. could proceed, since the SEC doesn't have jurisdiction over those individuals. That attempt has now fallen flat. The SEC scoffed at the suggestion made by Telegram, and Castel agrees. The company is now forbidden, with complete clarity, from offering any Gram tokens to anyone – inside the U.S. or out. The judge exp...