Author: José Oramas

José is a journalist and translator with a keen interest in blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Australia Crime Crypto News

Liquidators Fight to Recover $21 Million in Crypto from Melbourne Firm’s ‘Stolen Laptop’

Melbourne-based multinational bitcoin mining firm Blockchain Global Limited collapsed in October, owing more than A$20 million to investors. Now those investors are seeking millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin in a stolen laptop. 

Blockchain Global operated a crypto trading firm, ACX, which was drawn into a legal battle facing at least 94 investors after it stopped working in February 2020. A Victoria Supreme Court judge granted the firm’s administrators more time to recover the millions lost due to the complexity of recovering lost crypto.

Investors were complaining about being unable to access their funds at first. Withdrawals were suddenly blocked and customer support stopped providing any assistance.

Andrew Yeo, from accounting and advisory firm Pitcher Partners, said Blockchain Global’s assets included millions in bitcoin and ethereum. But contacting Blockchain Global’s directors – Allan Guo and Sam Lee – proved problematic as they reside overseas. Lee was not responsive when contacted via email or Chinese messaging service WeChat, the court was told.

Yeo said Guo had confirmed he could access the funds, but that the credentials he needed to access it were on a stolen laptop.

Investors Fighting to Recover More Than $21 Million

Investors are now fighting to recover more than A$21 million sitting on the missing laptop. This has raised concerns among investors, who now suspect fraud on the part of the former directors.

One investor, Bruno Fabre, told The Sunday Age newspaper that he had no concerns or issues with Blockchain Global and ACX until withdrawals were suddenly blocked.

I had no suspicion that it was a scam or anything like that. I was buying and selling, everything was functioning the way I thought it should function. It’s become obvious since then that there’s been some sort of wrongdoing.

Bruno Fabre, investor

Some investors claim that Blockchain and ACX owe them hundreds of thousands of dollars. When the case was taken to legal action, the Supreme Court granted a freezing order over an additional 117 BTC -roughly A$9 million.

This case is similar to the A$100 million class action lawsuit against the issuers of Qoin, a token promoted by the Queensland-based backers of 30-year old trading exchange Bartercard.

Misleading statements and failing to comply with consumer guarantees are not unusual in shady Australian-based crypto projects. A month ago, Crypto News Australia reported the shutdown of unlicensed Gold Coast financial services business A One Multi for suspected unlawful activity.

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Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Payments

Croatia’s Top Food Retailer ‘Konzum’ Introduces Crypto Payments

Konzum, the largest food retailer in Croatia, has partnered with local fintech Electrocoin, integrating its PayCek system to introduce cryptocurrency payments. 

The news was first reported by Reuters, noting that the retailer is popular among tourists visiting Croatia. They will now be able to pay for goods and services with up to nine different cryptos by simply scanning a QR code from their preferred wallet.

Cryptocurrency owners can buy and pay for groceries, hygiene and household items and other products from the rich offer of our online store with more than 12,000 products.

Kozum statement (translated)

Konzum board member Uroš Kalinić described the partnership with Electrocoin as another investment in emerging technologies. “We are proud to be leaders in another area that is rapidly developing and dictating the future,” he said.

Crypto Payments Going Global

Paying with cryptocurrrencies may not be a feature that every business allows or even likes, but with the fast-paced adoption of cryptos by large institutions, including El Salvador, several other entities have begun to accept crypto as a form of payment.

There are now numerous businesses accepting bitcoin, ether, or other forms of crypto. Six months ago in Australia, auction house Lloyds started accepting major crypto assets as payment for collectors’ or sports cars, calling the attention of crypto traders who also happen to be car enthusiasts.

Even charities in Australia and worldwide, such as Blockchain Philanthropy Foundation and Backpack Bed, are accepting crypto as a means of donation.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs

Defiance Launches World’s First ETF Focused on NFTs

Fintech firm Defiance has created and launched the world’s first Non-Fungible Token (NFT) exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the ticker symbol NFTZ, carrying an annual management fee of 0.65 percent. 

On December 2, Defiance launched the Defiance Digital Revolution ETF, the first NFT-related ETF in history. The fund doesn’t directly invest in NFTs, it rather keeps track of the index of companies that operate or plan to operate with NFTs.

There are notable holdings in the fund so far, including Silvergate Capital, with 6.74 percent of its net capital. Others include Coinbase, Cloudflare, Piby Group, Marathon Digital, and Hut 8 Mining.

Talking about the fund, Defiance chief investment officer Sylvia Jablonski said it was a great opportunity for investors to gain exposure to NFT marketplaces and companies operating with digital art.

The NFT revolution will fundamentally change the economic model for artists, athletes, creators, and many more industries that we can’t even conceive of today. In October, all-time NFT trading volume surpassed US$15 billion. This a great way for investors to gain access to not only the fast-growth blockchain technology aspect of the digital world, but companies involved in the renaissance of NFTs.

Sylvia Jablonski, chief investment officer, Defiance

The NFT Madness Doesn’t Stop

The NFT market is booming, with several projects coming into play in markets such as OpenSea. NFTs have gained so much attention in the media that last month Collins Dictionary named NFT its word of the year, ahead of the likes of crypto and metaverse.

In August, CryptoPunks recorded a milestone of US $1 billion in sales, shortly after Axie Infinity hit the same mark. And in September, Crypto News Australia reported the sale of a 101-strong Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection for US$25 million.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Social media

White Hat Hacker Discovers Twitter Will Soon Integrate ETH to ‘Tip Jar’

A white hat hacker – otherwise known as an ‘ethical’ hacker – has revealed that Twitter will soon integrate Ether (ETH) to the Tip Jar.

The hacker in question is Hong Kong-based Jane Manchun Wong, who discovered that users can receive tips in the form of ETH while not being included on the app.

The tipping function was rolled out in September, allowing Bitcoin tips via the Lightning Network. But it seems Wong managed to find a way to add the ETH address option in the Tip Jar by tweaking the Twitter interface to add Ethereum wallets. There was a user who had managed the feat first when the tipping function went live.

Note that the ETH address option is not available, but this suggests Twitter will soon integrate the option to allow users to receive tips in the form of Ether.

Not the First Time Wong Has Beaten Twitter to the Punch

Wong has previously discovered hidden functions on the social media platform. In early November, she managed to connect her ETH wallet to Twitter and set her Twitter NFT Avatar. Twitter soon blocked her access to the NFT Avatars feature.

Categories
Crypto News Tezos Tokens

Tezos Up 22% For the Week as $XTZ Staking Increases

XTZ, Tezos’ native token, is hotter than ever, mainly driven by an increment in XTZ staking and developer activity reaching new highs on the network.

The XTZ token is up more than 22 percent for the week, currently trading at US$5.54 per coin as per data from TradingView. The price increase is followed by the growing number of stakers on the Tezos platform, which is currently up 14 percent in the past three months.

Over 260k Contracts Deployed Daily

Another important positive price driver is the number of contract calls deployed on all of Tezos’ three testnets and mainnet combined. An average of 9,635 contracts were deployed daily, totalling 269,785 over the past 28 days.

This highlights the rapid growing developer activity on the network as Tezos-based applications are being used globally. In August, Crypto News Australia reported how XTZ surged soon after a Swiss banking consortium choose the Tezos protocol to develop regulatory-compliant digital financial products.

The soon-to-be-released NFTs on Tezos are also calling the attention of investors. The 64th Grammy Awards, set to take place in January 2022, will use NFT collectibles issued on the Tezos network.

Tim Draper Bullish on Bitcoin and Tezos

Well-known billionaire Tim Draper is not only bullish on Bitcoin but also on Tezos, saying the protocol is everything he wants to see in a crypto project:

What I look for is who are the entrepreneurs and who are the engineers behind a given token. I love some of the tokens. I love Tezos because it’s got a great engineering team, and they’ve redefined how to operate a token. They do it as proof-of-stake. They use less energy, and they have a new form of governance and that’s exciting.

Tim Draper, VC investor

Categories
Crime Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Crypto Lender Celsius CFO Arrested on Charges of Money Laundering

Yaron Shalem, the chief financial officer of crypto lending firm Celsius, was arrested last week along with seven others in connection with the Moshe Hogeg case. The firm confirmed the arrest on Twitter, saying it had been “made aware” of a police investigation led by Israeli forces, but didn’t disclose the name of the employee involved.

That employee is Celsius’ CFO, Yaron Shalem, included along with 17 others in an appendix to a letterhead document of the Israel Police’s National Fraud Investigation Unit.

Massive Money Laundering Scheme Foiled

Moshe Hogeg is a crypto entrepreneur behind the blockchain smartphone startup Sirin Labs. On November 18, he was arrested for money laundering, wire fraud, historical sexual assault, cryptocurrency-related scams and other charges. An undercover investigation led by Israeli Police found that Hogeg had laundered hundreds of millions of shekels through cryptocurrency.

Eight suspects were arrested on suspicion of committing fraudulent offences in the field of cryptocurrencies, amounting to hundreds of millions of shekels, following an undercover investigation conducted in recent months at the National Fraud Investigation Unit … and the Diamond Unit of the Tax Authority. According to the suspicion, [the suspects] acted systematically to commit investor fraud in a number of ventures in the field.

Israeli Police, Twitter

It’s clear that Celsius is referring to Shalem, whether or not it wants to admit it. What isn’t clear is what charges he’s facing, or the identities of the other people arrested with him.

Celsius has been under the scope of several US regulators for selling “unregistered securities”. Shalem’s suspension comes shortly after the firm revealed its Series B funding round had been incremented to US$750 million, giving the company a $3.25 billion valuation in October.

A similar case arose in Australia when a Sydney man was arrested earlier this year for running a multimillion-dollar crime syndicate.

Categories
Crypto News Surveys

Can You Beat 96% of Americans Who Fail This Crypto Literacy Test?

This has arguably been the year for crypto, as growing institutionalisation and investment in the sector in 2021 have pushed it firmly into mainstream consciousness. Notwithstanding its breakout performance, a recent report suggests that up to 98 percent of people lack even a basic grasp of crypto.

Crypto Knowledge is Weak

According to the study published by cryptoliteracy.org, a rudimentary understanding of cryptocurrency fundamentals remains elusive for most, even in a bull market.

The study consisted of 17 questions pertaining to cryptocurrency, bitcoin, decentralised finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and general sentiment.

One of the key findings was that “ownership is the best teacher”. Those who owned a digital asset were more than twice as likely to outperform those who didn’t.

2021 Crypto Literacy Report Suggests 96% of Americans Fail to Comprehend Basic Crypto Knowledge
Source: cryptoliteracy.org

It also revealed that around a third of respondents felt purchasing crypto was easy, suggesting that for outsiders, the user experience and complexities in the space remain a significant barrier to entry.

Interestingly, ownership tended to skew towards the educated and wealthy, rather than the lower strata of society who stand to gain the most from digital asset ownership.

Source: cryptoliteracy.org

Use Cases Vary

The report found that a quarter of Brazilians and a third of Mexican respondents would use crypto to pay for goods and services, compared to only 13 percent of American respondents.

Fifty percent of Americans advised they would utilise crypto as a way to save for the future. Younger generations are nearly three times more likely to use crypto as a means of payment than older generations who see it more as an investment.

cryptoliteracy.org

What Can We Learn?

For those who spend a lot of time in the crypto space, it’s worth reflecting from time to time that it is still very early and that broader adoption hasn’t even begun. Despite global adoption increasing by 880 percent over the year, only 31 percent of Gen Z Aussies own crypto.

In a world of Bitcoin, altcoins, shitcoins, memecoins, tokens, smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, stablecoins, CBDCs and more, there is simply an overwhelming amount of new content for the average person to wrap their head around.

The lack of crypto literacy among those who haven’t invested is therefore completely understandable, particularly in light of the complexities in the space and the complete paradigm shift required to gain a proper understanding.

However, to those who are invested, it is always worth remembering the words of Warren Buffett, the sixth-richest person on Earth with a fortune in excess of US$100 billion:

Investment must be rational; if you can’t understand it, don’t do it.

Warren Buffett

To optimise the prospects of a successful investment, a solid understanding underpinned by strong research is imperative. That, and a bit of luck to boot.

The importance of doing your own research (DYOR). Source: Memegenerator.net

Keen to see how your crypto knowledge stacks up? Take the test to see if you make the grade.

Categories
Coinbase Crypto Wallets DeFi Tokens

Breadwallet BRD Token Skyrockets 500% After Being Acquired by Coinbase

Breadwallet, an open-source digital wallet, has seen its native token BRD surge by 400 percent following its listing on Coinbase.

Following its November 24 announcement that crypto exchange Coinbase had acquired the BRD token, the Breadwallet team revealed it would be working with the firm to provide a more decentralised service and accelerate Web3 adoption:

Shortly after, the BRD saw a massive price boost of 500 percent. Data from Messari shows the token has returned more than 370 percent in a three-month period:

As per the wallet, the team said the listing won’t affect the BRD wallet app.

Nothing will change in the BRD wallet app and, as always, your funds are safe and secure. In the future, BRD wallet users will have an optional migration path to self-custody with Coinbase Wallet.

Breadwallet team statement

A Coinbase Listing Has a Massive Effect on a Token’s Price

Being acquired by Coinbase can be one of the best things that can happen to crypto and blockchain developers, as the firm is a well-known institution in the crypto industry. The BRD token is one of the many coins that have surged tremendously after getting listed on the exchange. An example is the Voyager token (VGX), an ERC-20 that soared 44 percent overnight after being listed on Coinbase Pro.

Another clear example is CRO, Crypto.com’s utility token. Earlier this month, Crypto News Australia reported that the CRO token had rallied 30 percent after being listed on the exchange.

Categories
Crypto Art Crypto News NFTs Tokens

Axie Infinity Land Plot NFT Sells for Record-Breaking $2.4 Million

The crypto community is witnessing what seems to be the largest sum ever paid for a single plot of digital land – 550 ETH, or US$2.48 million, was the price for which an Axie Infinity land plot was sold this week.

$2.5 Million for a Piece of Digital Land

The plot is a “Genesis” piece of virtual land, which is a rare type in Axie Infinity, located in the centre of the game’s map and with only 220 in existence.

ASX Hotter than Ever

Axie Infinity’s utility token ASX has been one of the top performers in the market. The game has been leading the P2E (Play-to-Earn) space by becoming the highest revenue-generating game in the market.

Last month, the game launched a staking rewards program that catapulted its token to new all-time highs of US$135. The game airdropped $60 million to early users, and in-game sales saw 50 percent gains in the following days.

Tokens such as MANA, AXS and SAND have soared in the past couple of weeks following the advent of the metaverse – virtual reality worlds where users can interact socially and economically using in-game digital assets. In a report released on November 24, Grayscale analysts valued the wider metaverse at US$1 trillion, with Facebook’s recent rebranding to Meta seen as “a catalyst”.

Categories
Crypto.com NFTs Security Sports Tokens

CRO Token Continues to Soar, Up Over 500% in Past 3 Months

CRO, the native token of the crypto exchange Crypto.com, has surged by more than 1000 percent in 2021 and is now worth almost US$1, with a current price of $0.89 at time of writing.

What’s Driving the CRO Price?

Data from Messari shows the token has been on the green this year, with three-month returns exceeding 533 percent gains. Its total market cap is now above US$23 billion, with 24hr trading volumes nearing US$300 million.

Crypto.com has been doing a lot for the crypto space lately in terms of partnerships, appearances, deals with high-profile companies in traditional finance, even jumping into the sports industry.

Sports Partnerships and Naming Rights

The main drivers of this rally are Crypto.com numerous sports partnerships this year and becoming the first crypto exchange to pass the SOC 2 test, which is an internationally recognised standard in traditional finance.

The Staples Center – home of the iconic NBA team Los Angeles Lakers – will be renamed Crypto.com Arena after the exchange bought the naming rights. This in itself caused the CRO token to surge over 91 percent in later hours.

Moreover, Crypto.com announced yesterday that it has become the first crypto trading firm to comply with SOC 2 standards. This, the firm says, reassures its position as a trustworthy company for its users.

The SOC (Security Organisation Control) 2 is an internal report that attests to the trustworthiness of a company’s information practices, security, procedures and integrity.

NFT Marketplace Assembles Big Names

In early 2021, Crypto.com hooked up with important names from several industries, collaborating with the likes of Lionel Richie, Snoop Dogg, the Aston Martin Formula 1 team, and more. The resulting NFT platform is now one of the top marketplaces for NFT collectors and content creators.

Launch of Free Crypto Tax Software in Australia

The crypto exchange has also been helping Aussies with their crypto tax obligations. Three months ago, Crypto.com launched a crypto tax software package in the country backed by professional tax advisers to facilitate the filing of crypto taxes at no cost.