A Sydney resident has been sentenced to 16 months in prison following an arrest last June after authorities were tipped off by a crypto company he had dealt with in order to deposit the stolen bitcoins.
The suspect pleaded guilty to seven counts of money laundering, one charge of identity theft and a drug offence.
In order to withdraw a total of $43,350, he used his newfound identities to withdraw the money from various crypto ATMs provided by BitRocket. However, BitRocket informed law enforcement that something fishy was going on in the wake of the first few transactions — leading to the man’s subsequent arrest while attempting yet another withdrawal. His apartment was subsequently searched, where police found a small amount of methamphetamine, as well as $6500 in cash.
Several Identities Used
Spokesmen for law enforcement have stated that as many as seven false identities were used by the suspect in yet another crypto money laundering case these past few months.
According to AFP Cybercrime Detective Acting Inspector Thomas Walker, the use of false identities can slow down police work considerably, since there is the risk of apprehending an innocent person who may not even be aware that their identity was stolen.
Criminals are continually trying to identify new opportunities to profit at the expense of other people, but we are focused on identifying and stopping anyone who tries to cheat the system and defraud others.
Thomas Walker, AFP Cybercrime Detective Acting Inspector
Although law enforcement representatives are not sure yet, they suspect the Bitcoins were stolen back in 2019. Detectives are also investigating whether the man is part of a larger cybercrime group, or a “lone wolf”.
So far, the alleged money launderer has spent a total of 9 months behind bars — and will be eligible for parole after 12 months in custody.
A smartphone is enough to purchase Bitcoin. You don’t need to have a laptop or a desktop PC to get the job done. This step-by-step guide will show you how to buy Bitcoin from your mobilephone, with a focus on the popular Australian platform CoinJar.
If you are approaching Bitcoin for the first time and you are not sure about how it all works, you might want to read about what Bitcoin is and an introduction to buying Bitcoin before going ahead.
1. Accessing your account
In order to buy Bitcoin (BTC), first of all you need to have a CoinJar account. Read our comprehensive guide on how to setup a Bitcoin account with CoinJar for instructions on how to set up a new account.
CoinJar Australia homepage
CoinJar Australia app download
CoinJar homepage encourages to proceed installing their app on smartphone, however it is also possible to proceed to a more traditional login page. Their app is available on the Google Play Store for Android devices, as well as on the Apple App Store for those using an iPhone.
2. Depositing funds
From within the CoinJar mobile app, the next step is to have funds available in the CoinJar wallet. If you don’t have any funds available (or not enough for your desired BTC amount), click Deposit from the app main screen (dashboard). You can use different methods for that, for example BPAY (like a utility bill) or PayID from your Australian bank account.
The last step is to actually purchase Bitcoin using funds in your “Cash Account”. For this, click on “Everyday Bitcoin” from the mobile app dashboard. This also shows previous transactions. Then click on “Buy”.
Alternatively, click on “Convert” from the CoinJar app dashboard. When prompted for “Convert from”, select “Cash Account”; then for “Convert to” select “Everyday Bitcoin”. Enter the desired amount and hit “Next” to proceed.
CoinJar Australia app Everyday Bitcoin
CoinJar Australia app AUD to BTC
Bitcoin Mobile Apps
Many platforms in Australia provide apps to buy Bitcoin using your phone, here is a selection of some of the best ones.
Coinjar
CoinJar is one of Australia’s longest running cryptocurrency platforms, offering exchange and hosted wallet services. Both the CoinJar website and iOS and Android mobile apps have excellent design and are easy to use, especially for beginners.
Swyftx is a Brisbane-based and AUSTRAC-registered Australian crypto currency exchange and trading platform. They have a website optimised for mobile usage, as well as apps available for download on both Android and iOS. Swyftx offers outstanding customer support coupled with low fees, making it appealing for buying cryptos.
Binance offers one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world in terms of trading volume. They offer apps for Android and iOS, supporting AUD deposits and withdrawals for personal accounts which are instant and have no fees through PayID/Osko. Thanks to very low fees and advanced features, they are a great choice for trading cryptos.
Some providers provide a way to buy Bitcoin with direct peer-to-peer exchange through LocalBitcoins. This may be useful for those countries who buy Bitcoin using their phone bill recharge, we have found the fees to be quite high for these services. If you’re interested, firstly you’ll need a digital wallet to store your Bitcoins. Feel free to read our article featuring some of the best Bitcoin mobile wallets.
Conclusions
As shown in this guide, buying Bitcoin from a mobile phone is pretty straightforward. Exchanges like CoinJar offer a great user experience on the phone with highly rated beginner friendly reviews.
Several world-renowned financial companies are gradually preparing to offer Bitcoin and cryptocurrency services amid the growing interest for the emerging asset class amongst their clients. Multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs has been reported by CNBC to have plans to debut a Bitcoin investment offering for its wealth management clients.
Morgan Stanley made a similar move recently – meaning that two of the world’s most prominent investment banks are looking at offering their clients access to Bitcoin and digital assets.
Clients in Goldman’s Private Wealth Management Group will Access Bitcoin
As CNBC learned from Mary Rich, global Head of Digital Assets for Goldman Sachs’s private wealth management division, the investment bank is looking to begin offering its first-ever Bitcoin investment vehicles for clients in its private wealth management group in the second quarter of 2021.
Rich said the bank wants to offer a “full-spectrum” of investments of the crypto, either as “physical bitcoin, derivatives or traditional investment vehicles.”
The bank’s decision to offer Bitcoin services comes amid the increase in demand for such an offering amongst the private wealth clients, according to Rich, who added:
There’s a contingent of clients who are looking to this asset as a hedge against inflation, and the macro backdrop over the past year has certainly played into that. […] There is also a large contingent of clients who feel like we’re sitting at the dawn of a new Internet in some ways and are looking for ways to participate in this space.
Mary Rich, Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs is currently seeking approval for the service with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the New York Department of Financial Services.
Only a few weeks ago, Goldman Sachs joined the list of companies that filed for a Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in the United States.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC), the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has more than doubled since the beginning of the year.
This exponential increase is second to none in the institutional-grade assets class, hence, making the cryptocurrency the best performing asset in the first quarter of 2021 according to cryptocurrency market research platform Messari.
While BTC appreciated over the past three months, the precious metal gold plummeted in value within the same period.
Bitcoin: The Best Performing Institutional Asset
Bitcoin was the best performing institutional-grade assets within Q1 of 2021, according to Messari researcher Mira Christanto. The cryptocurrency increased by 103 percent in value. Back in January, BTC was valued at around US$28,994. However, the price has surged to over US$59,000.
Within Q1 also, Oil increased by 26 percent, followed by Global Stocks (3 percent) and the USD (1 percent). The yellow metal was rated the institutional asset with the most significant loss. According to Messari, Investment Grade Bonds dropped by four percent in Q1, followed by Government Bonds, which fell by five percent. Gold declined by ten percent in value.
An ounce of gold was traded at nearly US$1,900 on 1 January 2021. However, the value has declined to US$1,707 at the time of writing.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many large companies began considering Bitcoin as a better store of value and inflation hedge. This includes the publicly-traded company MicroStrategy, MassMutual, Tesla, Square, and many other corporations. According to CoinGecko, there are 21 known public companies that have Bitcoin on their balance sheet. These institutional investments seem to have helped BTC maintaining an upward movement in value.
Just as the cryptocurrency market recovers, the largest digital currency investment company, Grayscale Investment, saw a significant increase in its assets under management (AUM). Within three days, Grayscale gained over US$3 billion in assets.
The Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) Trust products account for the largest share of the entire AUM. However, some people are worried GBTC and GETH premiums are trading well below the market price of the underlying assets.
Grayscale Reports a Total of over $44 Billion in AUM
03/29/21 UPDATE: Net Assets Under Management, Holdings per Share, and Market Price per Share for our Investment Products.
Grayscale has reported a total of US$44.1 billion in assets under management as of 29 March 2021. The company supports about 13 crypto investment products, five of which were added on 17 March, including Chainlink (LINK) and Basic Attention Token (BAT). The GBTC product accounts for about US$37.3 billion, followed by GETH, which represents about US$5.58 billion of the total AUM.
Three days ago, the investment company reported a US$41 billion AUM. The $3 billion increase could be partially attributed to the recent increase in the market value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Last week, BTC was trading mainly around US$55,000. However, since the start of the week, the cryptocurrency showed stronger price momentum, and it could cross US$59,100 soon.
The Issue With Grayscale Premium
Many users have shown much concern about the negative Grayscale Premiums. Since February, the company’s share price for GBTC has been dropping lower than the underlying cryptocurrency itself. According to data from OTCNode, GBTC is trading at a premium of -10 percent compared to the current price of Bitcoin. GETH premium is also negative (-8.66 percent).
Grayscale might consider buying back the shares to curtail the declining premiums, as previously announced.
Mogo, a Toronto-based fintech company and loan lender, has launched the first Bitcoin Cashback Mortgage in Canada — this means that Canadians can request a mortgage loan and earn at least $3,100 worth of Bitcoin.
Mogo is a fintech company that has expanded its Bitcoin Cashback program to include MogoMortgage, turning the company into the first-ever mortgage lender that will reward its users with Bitcoin.
The Crypto Market Expands in Canada
The crypto market in Canada is growing fast, mostly thanks to governmental support for crypto-assets. At least 3 BTC ETFs have been approved at the beginning of this year. Just a month after it was launch, Canada’s first Bitcoin ETF accrued over $450 million from investors.
This means that Canadians are keener to explore cryptocurrencies, but their inherent risk can drive away prospective investors. David Feller, CEO at Mogo, believes MogoMortgage can meet this demand without risking its customer’s capital:
Given the volatility and speculative nature of bitcoin, there’s an increasing number of Canadians who are looking for ways to participate without risking their own money, and our bitcoin rewards program meets this demand.
David Feller, CEO at Mogo [Business Wire]
Canada’s First Bitcoin Mortgage Cashback
Feller remarked that Bitcoin can offer unique opportunities as a long-term investment, stating that a $3,100 investment five years ago would now worth over $350,000.
Unlike traditional reward programs, bitcoin rewards have the unique characteristic of being an asset class that can rise in value over time – $3,100 invested in bitcoin 5 years ago would be worth over $350,000 today.
David Feller, CEO at Mogo [Business Wire]
With a $1.7 trillion mortgage market, Mogo expects to receive a large inflow of clients seeking exposure to crypto-assets, earning Bitcoin without risking their capital. “This is a great way to get a mortgage,” stated Greg Feller, Mogo’s Chief Financial Officer.
The residential mortgage market in Canada is a massive market estimated at about $1.7 trillion, and we’re pleased to provide Canadians with a great way to get a mortgage, while also earning bitcoin.
Greg Feller, President and CFO at Mogo [Business Wire]
As the leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is staging a comeback to the US$60,000 price level, its network hash rate just reached another all-time high.
This indicates that more mining machines have been deployed on the BTC network. What’s more interesting to note is that most miners are seemingly not selling off their coins at the moment. Hence, there may not be a significant increase in the number of BTC deposited to exchanges, even with the spike in hash rate.
Bitcoin Hash Rate Sets New All-Time High at 165.99M TH/s
Total Hash Rate of the Bitcoin network [Blockchain.com]
According to the data from Bitcoin explorer Blockchain.com, the network hash rate reached another major high of 165.992 Million Tera Hash per second (TH/s). Hash rate is basically the measuring unit of the processing power of the Bitcoin network. So, an increase in hash rate denotes that there are more miners processing transactions on the BTC blockchain.
The development today is not so surprising, given that the BTC mining industry has been growing rapidly. In recent months, many companies purchased more advanced mining machines to increase their processing power. This somewhat coincides with the growth in the market price of Bitcoin. Some companies tend to increase their mining hash rate when there are massive increases in Bitcoin price.
Meanwhile, a spike in the BTC hash rate is usually followed by an increase in mining difficulty to offset the number of resources required to mine Bitcoin.
Bitcoin Price Update
Bitcoin was trading at US$57,750 at the time of writing. The cryptocurrency reached as high as US$58,200 on Monday. From a circulating supply of 18.6 million BTC, the crypto’s market capitalization sits around US$1.078 billion.
Bitcoin price and volume [CoinMarketCap]
Overall, the crypto market has increased by 2.57 percent over the last 24 hours, possibly due to the mild increase in BTC.
The former chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, will be serving as an advisor to One River Asset Management, a company behind a $2.5 billion Bitcoin fund.
One River Appoints Clayton as Regulatory Advisor
According to Bloomberg’s report on Monday, Jay Claton has been appointed to serve as regulatory advisor to the digital assets manager. Besides the former SEC chairman, two other government officials, Kevin Hassett and Jonathan Orszag will be joining One River for the same role. Hassett served under President Donald Trump’s administration as the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, while Orszag is an economic consultant who previously worked in the Clinton administration.
The digitization of our financial ecosystem isn’t just coming, it’s already here. Three years ago, I didn’t believe we would be where we are today – the number of respected investors who have embraced digital assets. I would not have predicted this level of take-up.
Jay Clayton
However, Clayton noted that the development today doesn’t translate to a change in view on the importance of the rule of law and of regulation for the digital currency space or any other industry.
I see a wide range of outcomes for digital assets that include strong government regulation, domestically and globally. The time frame is uncertain, but I expect there will be international coordination if not international consensus around digital assets.
Jay Clayton
About One River Asset Management
One River reportedly began purchasing Bitcoin back in November, when the cryptocurrency was still trading around $15,000. From $1 billion in Bitcoin then, the company currently sees about $2.5 billion in Bitcoin under management. The CEO at One River, Eric Peters, seems to believe in digital currencies more as a store of value and inflation hedge rather than alternatives to fiat currencies.
Bitcoin could become a global digital reserve asset, according to Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence.
McGlone recently shared on his Twitter account a graph of the Bitcoin annual average price and the bitcoin Liquid Index. As shown below, BTC could reach a potential price of over $400,000 by 2021, considering its price behaviour in the past.
Source: Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Maturation Leap for Bitcoin
McGlone considers Bitcoin’s current bull run a “maturation leap”, which could lead the cryptocurrency to become a risk-off global reserve asset, as more institutional investors are seeking BTC exposure through investment firms.
Well on its way to becoming a global digital reserve asset, a maturation leap in 2021 may be transitioning Bitcoin toward a risk-off asset, in our view.
Mike McGlone
This view is reinforced by a broader institutional interest and adoption. Investment firms, asset managers, and other financial institutions have filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a Bitcoin Exchanged-traded Fund.
An ETF Could Catapult Bitcoin
Analyst Lark Davis believes an ETF could give Bitcoin a boost the same way it did with the first gold ETF in 2003.
This is what happened after a gold ETF was introduced in 2003, I suspect the same will happen when the USA introduces a #bitcoin ETF! pic.twitter.com/SsP4XryKfs
Since Bitcoin first appeared 13 years ago, its market cap went from zero to over $1 trillion. If a BTC ETF is approved, the crypto market could experience an even greater boost thanks to accredited investors and institutional capital could flock to the ETF.
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has ordered Benjamin Reynolds – assumed to be based out of Manchester – to pay a total of $571 million due to his alleged scamming of BTC buyers back in 2017.
The court order in question was decided upon in cooperation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and consists of $143 million to be paid back to scammed customers, as well as a civil monetary penalty of $429 million.
False Representation
Reynolds allegedly used multiple social media channels, a website and email address – among other methods of communication – to request at least 22,190.542 bitcoin – which were worth around $143 million at the time, from over 1,000 customers around the globe. 169 of these individuals are assumed to be living in the U.S., although there may be others who remain unknown.
Allegedly, Reynolds pretended to be running a company that traded the Bitcoins customers sent him, which were traded around by “specialized virtual currency traders” on a variety of platforms and who generated “guaranteed trading profits”.
No matter how great a trader is, everyone takes a loss sometimes – so this line should have tipped off most people regarding the nature of the “business”.
The CFTC also stated that although they have done their best to help victims of the purported scam recover their funds, they cannot guarantee the return of any funds – seeing as the accused may not have enough funds to cover the payments, if any.
“The CFTC cautions victims that restitution orders may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets. The CFTC will continue to fight vigorously for the protection of customers and to ensure wrongdoers are held accountable. “
The CFTC also thanked the British Columbia Securities Commission and the UK Financial Conduct Authority for their help in the investigation.
