Greetings from Berlin. It’s nice how crypto often shows the importance of many of the regulations that pre-dated crypto. According to the NY Attorney General, Bitfinex lost $850 million in customer funds — and used Tether reserves to cover the losses. Already, people are tweeting about proof of reserves. This jibes with a NYT finding that criminal activity still accounts for a huge percentage of crypto transactions. And speaking of, there’s a story that describes what it’s like to allegedly be scammed by John McAfee.
Don’t forget about the crypto workshop (plus yoga, hiking, healthy food, spa treatments, etc.) I’ll be teaching at Omega Institute in September! I’ve heard from a few people that they’ve already signed up. Plus, be sure to sign up for Unchained’s new channel on YouTube.
This Week’s Crypto News…
NY State AG Sues Bitfinex over Missing $850 Million
Bitfinex lost $850 million in customer funds and raided its Tether reserves to cover it up, according to the NY AG’s office. Here’s a copy the court order for Bitfinex to “stop moving money from Tether’s reserves to Bitfinex’s bank accounts, halt any dividends or other distributions to executives and turn over documents and information,” says the WSJ. And here’s the Block’s take. Plus, selections from Crypto Twitter.
FinCen Goes After ‘Peer-to-Peer’ Transactions
Someone was fined $35,000 for doing LocalBitcoins-style trades and not filing suspicious activity reports and the like. This news has likely rattled LocalBitcoins and BitcoinTalk traders. Marco Santori offers analysis above, and the FinCen announcement is here.
So How Is Crypto Being Used, Really?
Nathaniel Popper of the NYT digs into it — but this tweet sums it up: “The biggest problem I see is that, aside from speculation, legal, and socially-useful applications of crypto have continually struggled to overtake the illegal and unethical uses of the technology (drugs, ransom, gambling, illegal fundraising).”
Binance Fiat-to-Crypto Exchange Launches in Singapore
But for now, you can only trade Bitcoin. Even the homepage, which says it’s “the easiest way to buy cryptocurrency,” makes it sound like the Coinbase of yore. Meanwhile, Tony Sheng made a case for why Binance Chain could end up being the Ethereum killer.
Analyses of Ripple’s Ripples: What a Boondoggle
As Ryan Selkis of Messari put it, “[Ripple] has now raised more $ via token sales than filecoin, dfinity tezos combined.” Fittingly, the company is also currently seeking a head of government relations.
(In)stability Fees
Not only is MakerDAO having a hard time keeping the dollar peg on Dai, but also, infighting has led to the departure of several employees.
McAfee Scamming the Scammers?
You’d be hard-pressed to find a quality crypto project that would pay any “influencer” to market their product. But this unsavory crew met their match in John McAfee, who, despite the SEC’s warnings about celebrities promoting tokens, would allegedly ink such deals — and make off with the tokens without delivering in full.
