Monthly Archives: September 2022

Yuri Molchan

Peter Schiff has sold his bank to U.S. company that plans to expand its use in Puerto Rico

Vocal Bitcoin opponent Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Bank, has tweeted that his deal on selling his bank is over. This happened after, earlier this summer, he agreed to sell the bank and accept Bitcoin as payment for it.

Schiff took to Twitter to announce that he has managed to sell his bank - but not quite in the way he planned. Instead of a total sale to Texas-based Qenta fintech company, the firm has acquired all of Euro Pacific's assets from its receivership.

Clients' deposits will be shifted to Qenta's subsidiary in the UAE. Initially, Qenta planned to acquire the troubled bank and "greatly expand its operations in Puerto Rico."

In a tweet on July 9, he confessed that he was even prepared to accept the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, as payment for his bank if Puerto Rican regulators approved the deal. The foremost task for him is to protect his clients. However, today Schiff did not mention whether he got paid in Bitcoin.

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As reported by U.Today earlier, the operations of Euro Pacific Bank run by Peter Schiff were suspended as it failed to comply with the requirements of the local law in Puerto Rico regarding the net minimum capital held in the bank.

In connection with that, customers' accounts were frozen. Besides, regulators wanted to shut the bank down over tax evasion and money laundering accusations, while no evidence of either crime was spotted.

Schiff did admit, though, that his bank was new to the country and did not hold the minimum amount of money required by the law. Thus, it was costing Schiff a lot of money to run, with hardly any profits coming from it.

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Bitcoin Opponent Schiff Sells His Bank's Assets After Agreeing to Take BTC as Payment - U.Today

Apart from data analysis done alone or in cooperation with private companies, authorities may request information from centralized exchanges. Due to regulation, centralized exchanges may also be obligated to share such information. However, not all cryptocurrency exchanges collaborate with authorities.

A centralized exchange is a cryptocurrency exchange that is run by a single entity, such as Coinbase. To become a licensed operator in a certain country or territory, centralized exchanges need to comply with regulations.

For instance, to decrease cryptocurrency anonymity and the illicit use of cryptocurrencies, most centralized exchanges have incorporated Know Your Customer (KYC) checks. KYC is meant to verify customers’ identities alongside helping authorities to analyze activity on the blockchain. In practice, individuals need to submit a range of documents and their data before they are allowed to trade, invest and transact.

After KYC has been conducted, exchanges may be requested or may be obligated to share that data with law enforcement agencies. Since the exchange has individuals’ personal data and transaction data, so may the government. By using information obtained from centralized exchanges, the IRS can identify unknown Bitcoin wallets using KYC checks and corresponding personal information. 

Nonetheless, not all exchanges use KYC. For example, it is difficult to make decentralized exchanges (DEXs) comply with regulations because they lack a headquarter and are not run by a centralized company or a small group of individuals.

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Can the government track Bitcoin? - Cointelegraph

While decentralized finance (defi) has created a plethora of protocols that make it so crypto assets can gather a yield, ten and a half years ago a bitcoin exchange called Bitcoinica introduced the first interest accruing system for bitcoin deposits. Despite being the first to test the waters, Bitcoinica eventually went bust after a series of hacks that saw roughly 62,101 bitcoin stolen from the exchange, and interest-bearing crypto accounts did not return until eight years later.

These days, interest-bearing accounts and yield-gathering defi protocols are all the rage in the world of cryptocurrency, but most people dont know that the idea was introduced more than a decade ago. In mid-February 2012, the now-defunct bitcoin exchange, Bitcoinica, developed an idea that allowed bitcoin deposits on the exchange to gather interest. The idea was announced by the 18-year-old Zhou Tong, a bitcoin enthusiast who founded the exchange the year before. Bitcoinica saw 3,724.12 BTC, worth $71.56 million today, traded during the trading platforms first 24 hours of operation.

By September 2011, Bitcoinica was the second-largest bitcoin trading platform by volume behind Mt Gox. We are glad to announce that we have started the public test run of our interest system, the Bitcoinica founder wrote on February 13, 2012. We are the first website to offer interest for Bitcoin deposits. This post is intended to explain how the system works Assuming you deposit $10,000 with us and the interest rate is always 4.17, you will get $4.17 every day or $1,644 every year (with compound interest).

A great deal of todays interest-bearing protocols stems from the world of decentralized finance (defi), which is a whole lot different than Bitcoinicas interest-bearing account offering. Bitcoinicas concept is similar to what centralized crypto exchanges like Coinbase, Crypto.com, and many others offer today, as Bitcoinica was a centralized bitcoin trading platform.

Bitcoinica was similar to Celsius, in a sense, as it offered interest-bearing payments but eventually went under from financial difficulties. Bitcoinicas interest accounts were calculated every hour, and payouts were distributed after each day ended. Bitcoinica has been running great for the last [five] months, and were the fastest growing bitcoin business ever, Zhou Tong wrote at the time.

After the Bitcoinica interest-bearing accounts were introduced, the very next month Bitcoinica was hacked and lost 43,554 bitcoins worth $837.17 million using todays exchange rates. Then more than a month later, on May 11, 2012, Bitcoinica was hacked again losing 18,547 bitcoins, worth roughly $356.50 million today.

The interest-bearing accounts via Bitcoinica never really saw traction after the controversy that surrounded the Bitcoinica founder Zhou Tong and the mysterious hacks. Bitcoinica was eventually taken offline and by August 2012, the company entered into liquidation. Interestingly enough, the very day Zhou Tong announced the BTC interest-bearing account concept, one of the first comments asked the founder to assure the community that their funds were safe.

Soothe our fears and tell us why Bitcoinica will not be hacked, and tell us about how our money will not be stolen out of thin air? the individual asked the Bitcoinica founder. While Zhou Tong pledged to keep the exchange safe, the trading platforms two breaches were considered some of the most controversial hacks in crypto history, besides the scandals surrounding Mt Gox.

It took more than eight years to see crypto interest-bearing accounts finally take hold in the digital currency industry. Moreover, with defi protocols, yields can be earned in a private and noncustodial fashion without holding crypto assets on a centralized exchange.

However, much like Bitcoinica, interest-bearing crypto platforms can fail, and Celsius is one such lender that went bankrupt in recent times. While Celsius and Bitcoinica were centralized, defi platforms can go under too, like when the Terra blockchain ecosystem imploded.

When UST de-pegged from the $1 parity, defi users leveraging the lending application Anchor Protocol they had to deal with the bank run that followed. Other defi applications have been hacked or have seen rug pulls, and defi users looking to gain interest have lost all their money.

What do you think about the first bitcoin interest-bearing accounts offered by Bitcoinica more than a decade ago? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin Interest-Bearing Accounts Were Conceived Over 10 Years Ago, but the Idea Took 8 Years to Catch On Featured Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

The onset of the festive season sees an increase in investments in assets like gold. Bitcoin is often referred to as digital gold by supporters who feel it can provide a store of value just like bullion. Similarities like limited supply and worldwide acceptance show that Bitcoin is on the path to becoming an attractive option but it has to undergo its own trajectory to emerge as a strong competitor to gold.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs in a note made a strong pitch by comparing Bitcoin to gold. The note said Bitcoin could be the new gold and in the coming years, it has the potential to grow 2.5 times its current value. The note further added that the organisation sees Bitcoin as having applications beyond a store of value. By definition, a store of value is an asset that has the potential to maintain its value over time, such as oil and precious metals.

It is important to understand why Bitcoin is being compared to gold in the first place.

Both gold and Bitcoin are in limited supply. While gold has been in use for centuries, it is available in a finite supply. Similarly, the total number of Bitcoins that can be mined is exactly 21 million, ensuring its perpetual scarcity as demand rises.

According to JP Morgan, both Bitcoin and gold share other common characteristics such as durability which make them hard to destroy, portability which makes them easy to store and transport along with verifiability as both have recorded transactions. As an asset, both have a part to play in times of need.

If you look at the history of gold, it has withstood the test of time. Gold has been used for 1000s of years, has become a world standard and as an asset, it is known to maintain its worth. Since the 1870s, it has been used as the basis for the international monetary system. In comparison, for Bitcoin, it has only been 14 years and a year or two since a few countries have started using it as a standard thus making its use limited.

Over the last month, Bitcoin has seen changes that are a part of the bull and bear cycle showcasing frequent changes. Coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum have also been showing strong linkages with NASDAQ-listed technology stocks that are both responding to changes in the global geopolitical situation along with inflation-related macro news.

Bitcoin as a technology is currently developing and in fact, is still early in its maturity curve. Unlike gold which is known to be broadly non-volatile, stable, true value of money and has borderless acceptance, Bitcoin still has to go through a lot of testing in areas like security. There is every possibility that in the future Bitcoin is more stable than gold but every technology needs time to mature and stabilise.

(Prashant Kumar is Founder and CEO at weTrade.)

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Can Bitcoin be the new gold that funds your future? - Economic Times

The founder and CEO of crypto asset fund Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, is expressing bullish sentiment on Bitcoin (BTC).

Morehead says in a Bloomberg interview that Bitcoin bottomed out in June and is on the cusp of a bull market as it has now surpassed the average period of a bear cycle.

You know weve been doing this for 10 years and weve been through three big bear market cycles. And, on average, they lasted 220 days. Thats basically what weve just had.

I think we hit the lows in June. Well see. And then were on to the next bull market. And it might be rocky and might take a while to get going. But I think that were on to the next leg of a rally.

Asked to reveal his end-of-year and five-year price target for Bitcoin, the Pantera Capital CEO says that the flagship crypto asset is likely to maintain the average annual growth rate of 150% for a while.

Bitcoin as a proxy for the industry has averaged 2.5x a year for eleven years. So thats always kind of my standard forecast is that it will probably keep going at that same growth rate for a while.

Morehead, however, says that crypto assets other than Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) are outperforming the two biggest digital assets by market cap.

Bitcoin is no longer everything. There was a time Bitcoin was 100% of the market and, for a while, Bitcoin and Ethereum were essentially everything.

Now there are many really important projects. And youve seen Bitcoin rally a bit but the real story is projects other than Bitcoin and Ethereum are rallying more.

Pantera Capital currently has $4.5 billion in assets under management.

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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Smartha

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CEO of $4,500,000,000 Crypto Fund Says Bitcoin Has Bottomed Out and Is Ready To Rally Here Are His Targets - The Daily Hodl

Source: FabrikaSimf / Shutterstock.com

Athena Bitcoin (OTCMKTS:ABIT) stock is climbing higher on Friday as a rally of Bitcoin (BTC-USD) pushes shares up.

Lets start real quick with whats happening with BTC. As of Friday afternoon, the crypto is up 11.5% over the prior 24-hour period. That comes alongside a 21% increase in trading volume for the token.

Thats big news for fans of BTC as the crypto is now trading above $21,000 per token. Its been a couple of weeks since Bitcoin last reached that price and traders are likely hoping the rally will continue over the weekend.

Considering Athena Bitcoin is so closely tied to the crypto as to have it in its name, it makes sense its shares would rally today as well. As of this writing, more than 58,000 shares of the companys stock have changed hands. While that may not seem like much, the companys daily average trading volume is only about 13,000 shares.

Of course, with such a low average trading volume, as well as a price sitting at around 55 cents per share, investors will want to be careful with ABIT stock. Those two factors put it firmly in the penny stock range. That means volatility is likely as traders can more easily influence its stock price.

ABIT stock is up 48.7% as of Friday afternoon.

Theres plenty more stock market news traders can read up on below!

InvestorPlace is home to all of the hottest stock market news for Friday! A few examples of that include why shares of Nio(NYSE:NIO), Lyft(NASDAQ:LYFT), and Digital World Acquisition(NASDAQ:DWAC) stock are moving today. You can get all of that news from the following links!

On Penny Stocks and Low-Volume Stocks:With only the rarest exceptions,InvestorPlacedoes not publish commentary about companies that have a market cap of less than $100 million or trade less than 100,000 shares each day. Thats because these penny stocks are frequently the playground for scam artists and market manipulators. If we ever do publish commentary on a low-volume stock that may be affected by our commentary, we demand thatInvestorPlace.comswriters disclose this fact and warn readers of the risks.

Read More:Penny Stocks How to Profit Without Getting Scammed

On the date of publication, William Whitedid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines.

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What Is Going on With Athena Bitcoin (ABIT) Stock Today? - InvestorPlace

Yuri Molchan

Bitcoin so far remains stable, but twice this year, this measure has made it crash

CNBC has just announced that the European Central Bank has experienced thebiggest rate hike in its history, lifting the interest rate by 75 basis points.

Earlier this year, in early May and mid-June, the U.S. Federal Reserve took similar steps, raising the interest rate by half a percentage point and again by 75 percentage points. Those were the largest hikes in periods of over 20 and nearly 30 years.

The biggest digital cryptocurrency, Bitcoin,remained stable both timesand even demonstrated 1%growth on that news.

Now, the ECB has joined the policy of rate hikes started by the Fed. So far, BTC is up by nearly 1%. However, both interest rate hikes were followed by a sharp price fall.

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On June 15, when the second hike was introduced, Bitcoin plunged from above the $22,500 zone to $17,744.

As reported by U.Today earlier, the Federal Reserve has been discussing another 75%rate hike to be made soon, according to The Wall Street Journal. Besides, on Aug. 26, Fed Chairman Jerome Powellannounced that the U.S. Central Bank intends to continue its hawkish policy in an attempt to break the backof the inflation.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is changing hands at $19,256,per CoinMarketCap.

Continued here:
Bitcoin May Face Another Crash Due to This ECB Move: Details - U.Today