Author: Phil Stafford

Phil is a long-standing Australian journalist with specialised experience in business, finance, travel and popular culture.

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Banking Bitcoin Crime Crypto News Crypto Wallets Ransomware

FBI Seizes $154 Million in Bitcoin Stolen from Sony by Rogue Employee

US law enforcement has taken legal action to seize and return over US$154 million embezzled from Sony Life Insurance Company Ltd by an employee in a textbook business email compromise (BEC) attack.

Rei Ishii, 32, a Tokyo-based employee of the Sony Corporation subsidiary, allegedly diverted the funds when Sony Life attempted to transfer them between its financial accounts.

Culprit Diverts Funds, Converts Them to Crypto

Ishii was alleged to have done this by falsifying transaction instructions, which caused the funds to be transferred to an account he controlled at a Californian bank. He later converted the stolen funds into more than 3879 bitcoins held in an offline cryptocurrency cold wallet.

In a crude attempt at blackmail, Ishii also tried to block his supervisor and several Sony Life executives from assisting in the investigation by emailing them a “ransom note” typed in English and Japanese:

If you accept the settlement, we will return the funds … [But] if you [file] criminal charges, it will be impossible to recover [them]. We might go down [for] this, but … you [will] be right there next to us. We strongly recommend to stop communicate (sic) with any third parties, including law enforcement.

Ransom note from Rei Ishii, accused embezzler and former employee of Sony Life Insurance Co Ltd

Earlier this month, following a joint investigation by the FBI and Japanese authorities, the 3879 bitcoins (worth more than US$150 million at the time) in Ishii’s cold wallet were seized after the FBI obtained the private key and transferred the ill-gotten crypto to its own bitcoin wallet.

Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department arrested Ishii on the same day and criminally charged him on suspicion of obtaining US$154 million dollars via fraudulent money transfers.

In a statement, Acting US Attorney Randy Grossman said:

This case is an example of amazing work by FBI agents and Japanese law enforcement, who teamed up to track this virtual cash. Criminals take note: You cannot rely on cryptocurrency to hide your ill-gotten gains from law enforcement.

Acting US Attorney Randy Grossman

Echoes of the REvil Ransomware Case

The case echoes charges filed by the US Department of Justice last month against a REvil ransomware affiliate responsible for the July attack against the Kaseya MSP platform. This case had ripple effects as far as Australia, with more than US$6 million seized from another REvil partner.

Categories
Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Metaverse NFTs Retail

You Can Own a Sushi Shop on the Gold Coast as an NFT, If You Want

Fancy owning a business where you not only get to keep all the net profits but are not liable for any losses? And you’re not even required to be onsite but have staff and management to take care of day-to-day operations on your behalf?

Sounds too good to be true, but Australian food hospitality brand Sushi Sushi is the first retailer in the world to offer a store for sale via cryptocurrency, with all of the above benefits as part of the deal.

For a cool million AUD in a choice or combination of bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Cardano (ADA) or Solana (SOL), anyone over 18 can become the new owner of Sushi Sushi’s store on busy Cavill Avenue in Surfers Paradise on Queensland’s Gold Coast, with a non-fungible token (NFT) to prove it.

Munching into the Metaverse

According to Sushi Sushi CEO and director Scott Meneilly, the brand is “entering the metaverse” with this sale. “You have to innovate or die, and part of this is about stepping outside of your comfort zone and pushing the minds of others,” he says.

We see a massive opportunity in using blockchain, and we felt that selling a franchise store using crypto was a great way to let people know we are serious about playing in this space.

Scott Meneilly, CEO and director, Sushi Sushi

The successful franchisee will not need to physically run the business, Meneilly says, as Sushi Sushi will take care of daily management and operation while the buyer receives all the net profit. The buyer will also not be responsible for any losses.

We believe that this is the future and that people will follow our lead. We want to innovate in this space and create a groundswell of new opportunity. I am a crypto enthusiast and I believe this is a currency that needs to be approached, seriously and respectfully, and we feel the best way to underscore this is with a serious business transaction.

Scott Meneilly, CEO and director, Sushi Sushi

Before becoming CEO of Sushi Sushi, Meneilly was the chief executive of Boost Juice and previously ran Australia’s largest tanning salon business, Body Bronze, between 2002 and 2008.

Check the Fine Print

If you’re thinking of visiting the Sushi Sushi website to register your interest, prospective franchisees should be aware of the following details listed in the fine print:

  • You will be part of a “joint venture” with Sushi Sushi by buying its Cavill Avenue business in crypto to the value of A$1 million.
  • You will receive 100 percent of the net profits from Sushi Sushi Cavill Ave (sales revenue minus total operating costs, being all expenses incurred in operating the store, including a management fee payable to Sushi Sushi) [Crypto News Australia‘s italics].
  • You will receive an exclusive one-of-one NFT of Sushi Sushi Cavill Ave (although said NFT is “currently in development and will be shown directly to the purchaser before being released for public viewing”.

As they say in the classics, caveat emptor (let the buyer beware). Just last week, Crypto News Australia reported that Australian auction house Lloyds was auctioning 50 NFTs of classic ’70s Aussie muscle car the Holden Torana A9X. That’s virtually one every week between now and next Christmas.

Categories
Crypto News DeFi Tokens

Yearn Finance Token Soars 50% Amid Aggressive Buyback Program

Yearn Finance (YFI) proved to be one of the best performers in the crypto market last week, rallying almost 50 percent to hit a fortnightly high above US$31,700 at the time of writing.

The surge coincided with a revelation by Yearn that it has been buying back its YFI token in bulk since early last month in response to a community vote to improve its tokenomics. The decentralised asset management platform purchased 282.40 YFI at an average price of US$26,651 per token, totalling over US$7.5 million.

Yearn Intends to Buy Back Even More Tokens

Yearn also claims to have more than US$45 million in its Treasury and has recorded “stronger than ever” earnings. As a result, it said it would buy back even more YFI tokens in future.

Yearn reportedly makes about US$100 million per year alone in fees collected from Vaults, its smart savings account service that maximises the value accrual of deposited digital assets. It also has enough liquidity to sustain its token buyback strategy going forward.

YFI Leaves ETH and SOL in the Shade

Right now, Yearn’s primary aim is to recover recent losses and last week’s rally left some of the major altcoins in the shadows. To cite two examples, ETH dropped 3.38 percent with SOL sitting at -1.57 percent in the same period YFI shot up 46 percent.

YFI price action, December 15-17. Source: TradingView / AMBCrypto

Back in February this year, Fantom FTM coin pumped more than 73 percent in a single day on the back of its collaboration with Yearn Finance. Perhaps YFI has once again found the magic touch.

Categories
Crypto News Metaverse NFTs Tokens

Adidas Originals Metaverse NFT Drop Launching Today: Dec 17

Adidas Originals has today launched its non-fungible token collection, titled Into The Metaverse, in doing so becoming the last of the big three sports footwear brands to join the NFT fray.

The Into The Metaverse digital asset will serve as an access token, promising holders exclusive first dibs on future merchandise, physical and digital product and services, rewards within its newly attained land plot in The Sandbox, and more.

How to Get Your Adidas NFT

The collection’s sale starts via the company’s official website on Friday, December 17 at a price of 0.2 ETH, about US$791 at the time of writing.

Early access takes place before public sale, with 20,000 tokens reserved for holders of: Adidas Originals POAP (Proof Of Attendance Protocol), gMoney POAPs, BAYC/MAYC NFTs, and all Pixel Vault NFTs.

A minimum of 9,620 Adidas NFTs are reserved for general sale, which will remain open until all NFTs are sold. Adidas and partners retain 380 NFTs with a portion allocated towards future events.

For answers to FAQs, go to www.adidas.com/faq

Adidas Makes Good on its Metaverse Promise

Earlier this month, Adidas announced it would be collaborating with Bored Ape creators and Yuga Labs to enter the metaverse, making a show of good faith by purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT for 46 ETH, or US$156,000, at the time.

Then this week, Nike announced it had acquired RTFKT Studios, a digital art studio focusing on sneaker-themed NFTs and collectibles on the Ethereum blockchain, thus heralding its own first footfall in the metaverse.

In July, Japanese multinational sports apparel giant Asics stole a march on both Nike and Adidas, its two fiercest competitors in the footwear space, by launching its Sunrise Red NFT collection.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Insurance

$2.5 Billion Insurance Firm Lemonade Adds $1 Million in BTC to its Balance Sheet

With US inflation up 6.8 percent over the past year, leading insurance company Lemonade has purchased a million dollars’ worth of bitcoin to help offset further erosion of its balance sheet.

It’s a move that could well prove a precedent for other large American businesses yet to invest in digital assets.

Lemonade, holding US$2.5 billion in assets, reported the purchase in an S-4 form that US publicly traded companies file with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “The company has ownership of and control over the purchased bitcoin asset and uses third-party custodial services to secure it,” Lemonade said in its accompanying statement. “The digital assets are initially recorded at cost and are subsequently remeasured on the consolidated balance sheets at cost, net of any impairment losses incurred since acquisition.”

Crypto Investment Catching On Among Large Non-Crypto Concerns

Lemonade’s move into crypto suggests that investing in cryptocurrencies is gaining popularity among businesses aiming to join the trend started by large companies such as Tesla and Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre, which in Q1 2021 purchased US$7.8 million in bitcoin.

All three companies have a way to go to challenge the king of bitcoin balance sheets, MicroStrategy. The 25-year-old business intelligence, mobile software and cloud-based services company co-founded by Michael Saylor now holds a total of 122,478 BTC on its balance sheet at the remarkably low average entry price of US$29,861.

Although MicroStrategy owns less than 1 percent of total bitcoin supply, it has the highest BTC holdings of any public company. Chances are it will soon have a raft of challengers.

Categories
Crypto News NFTs

Aussie Muscle Car Holden Torana A9X Auctioned as 50 NFTs by Lloyds

Australian auction house Lloyds is auctioning 50 NFTs of classic ’70s Aussie muscle car the Holden Torana A9X.

These digital representations of the iconic race car will be minted on the blockchain and include an amazing high-resolution 3D model of the vehicle, among many other benefits.

The auction deadline is Saturday, December 18, at 8pm AEST.

Lloyds online auction for the Holden Torana A9X.

The NFT car specifications have been verified by ICAARS (International Classic Automobile Authentication And Rating System) – Australia’s leading Classic Car verification company – as being the correct representation of the physical Holden Torana A9X first sold 44 years ago.

An ICAARS certificate of authenticity will be supplied to the winning bidder along with the additional benefits outlined above. The successful new custodian will also receive:

  • 10 percent of every future sale of this classic car on Lloyds NFT Auctions;
  • one year of half-price buyer’s premium or commission at Lloyds on any products purchased personally or by a company owned by the new custodian (fair use policy applies);
  • 50,000 Lloyds Webber tokens for gifts, experiences and one-off events; and
  • a framed picture of the A9X digital NFT.
Holden Torana A9X NFT in mandarin with a chamois and black vinyl interior.

According to Lee Hames, Lloyds’ chief operations officer, the auction house is proud to present first-edition classic car art NFTs as a blockchain world first. “It is important to note that people are not just buying a picture,” he said. “In our case the digital 3D model is a representation of the value. The value is in the utility of the benefits included in the NFT.”

50 More A9X NFTs Released Over the Coming Year

As a highly collectible Aussie muscle car the A9X has consistently held its value since its launch in 1977, and Lloyds has just announced the second of 52 non-fungible token (NFT) editions to be released over the coming year.

The A9X Holden Torana was designed and built to race, making its dream debut by winning the 1977 Hang Ten 400 at Sandown, Victoria, with champion driver the late Peter Brock at the wheel.

While the A9X lost its first Bathurst 1000 race in 1977 to Ford, it went on to dominate the following two seasons of touring car racing in Australia. In a show of its superiority, Brock and co-driver Jim Richards won the 1979 race by a record six laps, with Brock setting the touring-car lap record on the last lap.

Overall, a total of 65,977 LX Toranas – of which the A9X was the most famous iteration – were produced by Holden. In June this year, one fetched A$775,000 at auction after it was expected to go for at least a million dollars.

Bidders can email [email protected] for further information or check the NFTs FAQ page.

Earlier this year, Lloyds announced it would be accepting cryptocurrencies as payment to buy classic or collector cars.

In related news, German prestige car manufacturer Audi recently released its own NFT collection in collaboration with xNFT Protocol, a decentralised creation and aggregator platform for NFTs. 

Categories
Australia Banking Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Dogecoin Ethereum NFTs

Survey Finds Most Australians Still Have No Idea About Crypto or NFTs

Contrary to findings published last week by the Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI), a new Saxo Markets survey reveals only one in 10 Australians knows what a cryptocurrency is, with those older than 65 even less certain.

There is also a divide between the sexes, according to the Saxo survey. Around 21 percent of Australian men claim to have a handle on what cryptocurrencies are and how they work, compared to just seven percent of women.

These findings stand in stark contrast to the IRCI survey, which found that:

  • 28.8 percent (or almost three in 10) of Australians either own or have owned crypto (up from 18.4 percent in 2020); and
  • the proportion of women who own crypto has almost doubled in 12 months from 10.1 percent in 2020 to 20 percent.

The Saxo poll found that bitcoin was easily the best-known crypto, albeit with an underwhelming 38 percent of Australians surveyed recognising the name. The next most familiar cryptocurrencies were Ethereum, ringing a bell for 12 per cent of Australians surveyed, and Dogecoin next on 8 per cent.

By comparison, the IRCI survey found that nine in 10 Australians were aware of bitcoin with more than one in five owning it. The next-ranked crypto was Ethereum, at 11 percent (up from 5 percent ownership in 2020), on a relative par with the Saxo survey.

Three in Four Australians ‘Unaware’ of NFTs

Perhaps the most surprising Saxo statistic was that 75 per cent of Australians apparently have not even heard of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), though they’ve been by far the hottest blockchain commodity in 2021. Below is a table relating to Saxo’s findings:

As Australian Crypto Owners Push Toward a Million, a CBDC is On the Way

Last week, Australian Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg estimated that more than 800,000 Australians have owned cryptocurrency at least once. Crypto was a “fast-moving area” that the government needed to get ahead of, Frydenberg said, while also declaring both the Commonwealth and Reserve banks were planning to introduce a central cryptocurrency.

The Saxo survey found that 42 per cent of Australians would use a cryptocurrency if it were made legal tender tomorrow, but only one in four agreed that cryptos should be declared legal by the government. If cryptos were in legal circulation, one in three Aussies said they would incorporate them in their savings or retirement plans.

In August, the 2021 Global Blockchain Survey conducted by multinational accounting firm Deloitte revealed that 76 percent of respondents believed crypto would be a strong alternative to, or outright replace, fiat money within the next decade.

According to a May survey by TradingView, cryptocurrencies had by then become Australians’ second-most preferred assets, outranking traditional assets such as bonds and futures. Just a month later, another survey by international crypto exchange Kraken found that 40 percent of millennials preferred investing in digital assets over real estate.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Payments Tokens

NEAR Protocol Token Soars 48% in a Week After Listing on MoonPay

When payment solutions company MoonPay announced it was allowing its users to buy NEAR tokens worldwide, the price of NEAR Protocol skyrocketed 28 percent in 24 hours, with trading volume up more than 125 percent in the same period. Since then, the NEAR token has recorded an overall increase of 48 percent in a week.

NEAR is a development platform built on a sharded, proof-of-stake, layer-one blockchain that offers drastically lower transaction fees while maintaining high throughputs. The simple explanation for NEAR’s sudden boost is that MoonPay has a crypto trading app with around five million users.

By announcing its support for NEAR, MoonPay made the pool of potential investors that much deeper, which also explains NEAR’s increased trading volume. NEAR Protocol is further seeking to facilitate a shift to Web 3.0. With a daily transaction rate of 300,000 – just a fraction of its almost limitless capability – developers see a need for NEAR to transition to a more efficient system called Nightshade.

Phase one of the transition is scheduled to begin in early 2022, with phase two set to be implemented by the end of next year.

A String of Recent Announcements

In the first week of December, NEAR Foundation and WOO Network announced the completion of a US$5 million token swap to create a strategic partnership between ecosystems.

Last month, Ardana – Cardano’s growing stablecoin hub – also announced a strategic partnership with Near Protocol. It will allow for asset transfer between the two protocols in which Ardana will provide the bridging infrastructure:

Last week, altcoin MDT jumped more than 90 percent in a single day by breaking a rising wedge pattern with strong buying volume on multiple exchanges. Similarly, a week earlier IDEX surged more than 85 percent in 24 hours after listing on Huobi Exchange.

Categories
Blockchain Crypto News

Kickstarter Plans to Shift Crowdfunding to the Blockchain and People Aren’t Happy

Crowdfunding platform Kickstarter is betting big on the blockchain, though its plan to create a decentralised version of its own core functionality has not exactly met with universal acclaim.

The company says the goal is for multiple platforms to embrace the protocol – including, eventually, its own website. First step in the process is launching an offshoot called Kickstarter PBC, which will begin development of the protocol.

Kickstarter is funding the project itself, appointing an initial board and committing to be one of the first platforms on the protocol, though there are no specific timelines as to when such a transition might take place.

The company also announced the establishment of an “independent governance lab”, which will publish research and engage with the community on protocol governance.

Kickstarter to Proceed With Caution

Kickstarter intends to proceed with caution in terms of how the protocol will impact the user experience. “As a user, the Kickstarter experience you’re familiar with will stay the same,” according to a company blog post. “You won’t ‘see’ the protocol, but you will benefit from its improvements.”

Backlash in the Twittersphere

Not everyone is convinced, with the above tweet just one example of a widespread pushback (see also the tweet below from Christian Hoffer of comicbook.com). Plenty of mainstream users still have problems with Web3 technology due to controversy around energy usage of some of the more popular networks, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Kickstarter is aiming to sidestep these concerns by placing its new vertical on the Celo blockchain, which is billed as “carbon negative”.

Other than highlighting that the protocol will leverage Celo, Kickstarter has not gone into specifics about how it envisions Kickstarter PBC’s work developing in the short or medium term.

Kickstarter Not Alone in Taking the Decentralised Route

Kickstarter isn’t the only “traditional” tech giant looking to develop an open source protocol that its own platform will eventually adopt; Twitter has been working on Bluesky, its own project to develop a decentralised social media protocol.

The move by Kickstarter mirrors that of Roman Coppola when in August this year the scion of one of Hollywood’s most influential families co-founded a decentralised film financing platform based on blockchain technology. However, Coppola didn’t face quite the same level of opposition.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrencies Surveys

Adoption Rate Grows as +28% of Australians Now Own Crypto, Latest Report Shows

Almost three in 10 Australians now own (or have owned) crypto, according to the 2021 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index (IRCI), released this week.

Conducted nationally, the third annual IRCI survey revealed the following key points:

  • Exactly 28.8 percent of Australians now own or have owned crypto (up from 18.4 percent in 2020).
  • The proportion of women who own crypto has almost doubled from 10.1 percent in 2020 to 20 percent.
  • Up from 78 percent in 2020, 89 percent of Aussie crypto owners report having made money or broken even.
  • Bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency with 89.1 percent of Australians aware of it and 21.1 percent owning it.

2021 a ‘Bumper Year’ for the Australian Crypto Industry

By its own reckoning, the IRCI survey provides a benchmark for the awareness, trust and confidence everyday Australians place in digital currencies. In the words of Independent Reserve CEO Adrian Przelozny, “This has been a bumper year for the crypto industry, with new products like ETFs hitting the market and providing more alternative investment opportunities for Australians, but the sector still desperately needs regulation to catch up and provide greater security for both investors and cryptocurrency businesses”.

“Our IRCI results this year support this, with 28.6 percent of Australians who don’t currently own crypto telling us they would invest if there were better consumer protections in place. Another 26.6 percent said they’d buy crypto if industry regulation was improved.

Although Australian regulators and government agencies may have taken a while to get their heads around cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, Australians themselves have sped ahead and we’re really seeing that in past year, as an asset class, crypto has gone from the fringe to the mainstream.

Adrian Przelozny, CEO, Independent Reserve

Bitcoin Still King Down Under

Unsurprisingly, the IRCI survey found that Bitcoin remains the best-known and most popular cryptocurrency, with almost nine in 10 Australians saying they’ve heard of it and more than one in five owning it. The next ranked crypto is Ethereum, at 11 percent (up from 5 percent ownership in 2020).

Another poll conducted by Coinspot earlier in 2021 contained a bold prediction from some Australians that bitcoin would pass the A$100,000 mark by the end of this year.

Millennials and Gen Z Lead the Crypto Charge

Unsurprisingly, the 24-34-year-old age group was the most trusting of crypto, with 27.6 percent saying they bought in expressly to get rich. Doubters were most likely to be found in the 65+ age group.

Comparison site Finder reported in its September survey that Australians had amassed over A$7 billion in crypto with 31 percent of the Gen Z population leading the investment charge, a figure that had effectively doubled since January 2021.

If you’re looking to open an account with Independent Reserve, who also announced a sponsorship deal with the Sydney Swans AFL team this week, you can follow some simple steps here and could be buying crypto within minutes.