Criminal Bitcoin Trader Found Guilty of Money Laundering in Arizona

Criminal Bitcoin Trader Found Guilty of Money Laundering in Arizona

Criminal Bitcoin Trader Found Guilty of Money Laundering in Arizona

Though many convicted criminals serve time and receive help reforming, for one Bitcoin trader, his record continues to grow from felony marijuana charges to money laundering.

First reported by CCN earlier as an “unlicensed money transmitting business,” it appears as though Thomas Mario Costanzo, who often goes by ‘Morpheus Titania,’ hasn’t yet learned his lesson in following the law, including legal Bitcoin trading, and now awaits his June sentencing regarding yesterday’s trial.

Participating in Costanzo’s investigation, begun in 2014, were the IRS, DEA, USPS, Scottsdale Police Department, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations, and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. A Phoenix federal jury has now found the Arizona resident guilty of five counts of money laundering.

Trading Bitcoin with undercover agents, Costanzo encouraged cryptocurrency as a means of purchasing illegal drugs. Without providing transparency about transactions, crypto was promoted as a way to limit exposure with law enforcement.
Found guilty of exchanging nearly $165,000 from alleged drug traffickers (undercover federal agents) over the course of two years, Costanzo failed to identify his customers. He also concealed proceeds and charged anywhere from seven to ten percent commission for peer-to-peer transactions, rather than functioning within the legal limits for online exchange.

 

Arizona’s Bitcoin Laws

According to Arizona’s HB2417 bill, passed last spring:
“SMART CONTRACTS MAY EXIST IN COMMERCE. A CONTRACT RELATING TO A 36 TRANSACTION MAY NOT BE DENIED LEGAL EFFECT, VALIDITY OR ENFORCEABILITY 37 SOLELY BECAUSE THAT CONTRACT CONTAINS A SMART CONTRACT TERM.”

But while Bitcoin, and alt crypto, transactions are legal in the state, it would be expected that residents trade in accordance with the law. At minimum, doing so would help Arizona residents avoid twenty-year prison sentences and quarter-million-dollar fines per conviction, like those potentially awaiting Costanzo.

As CCN correspondent P. H. Madore wrote in July, 2017, “people like Costanzo are not the norm in Bitcoin trading.” What is the norm in Bitcoin trading is following the confines of the law to the best of one’s ability.
Though this is a case of one criminal using Bitcoin in an illegal manner, it gives an unnecessarily bad name to cryptocurrencies, especially in a time when their validity and the governance thereof is in question.

There’s too much fear-driven propaganda already, and those interested in Bitcoin or alt trading need to remember breaking the law isn’t what cryptocurrencies were designed for. And just because one man can’t manage to govern himself, the future of crypto is not at risk.

Even for those questioning the SEC’s inquiries into crypto regulations, regulations such as Know-Your-Customer (KYC) verifications serve to protect all involved, necessary when it comes to potential trading with criminals such as Costanzo.

Author  BITCOIN CRIME MARCH 31, 2018 03:52

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH USD Crashes Below $700

Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis – BCH/USD Crashes Below $700

Key Points

  • Bitcoin cash price struggled to move higher and declined sharply below the $700 level against the US Dollar.

  • There are two key bearish trend lines forming with resistances near $750 and $850 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

  • The pair may continue to struggle, and it could even trade towards $600 in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price faced a lot of heat and declined sharply against the US Dollar. BCH/USD even traded below he $700 level and it remains at a risk of more losses.

 

Bitcoin Cash Price Downside

There was a lot of increase in selling pressure, resulting in a push below the $750 support in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The price declined heavily and even broke the $700 level. A low was formed at $679 from where a minor correction was initiated. At the moment, the price is well below the $750 level and the 100 hourly simple moving average.

There are many bearish signs on the chart with a daily close below $750. An initial resistance is around the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $898 high to $679 low. More importantly, there are two key bearish trend lines forming with resistances near $750 and $850 on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. The first trend line is very important since it is near $750 pivot level. Moreover, the 50% Fib retracement level of the last decline from the $898 high to $679 low is also around the trend line.

 

herefore, any upsides are likely to be capped by the $720 and $750 levels. On the downside, the price may soon break the $650 level for more losses.

 

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is gaining downside momentum in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is now around the 30 level.

Major Support Level – $650

Major Resistance Level – $750

 

Author AAYUSH JINDAL | MARCH 30, 2018 | 4:08 AM

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Looking Ahead To $20,000 Bitcoin

Looking Ahead To $20,000 Bitcoin

Looking Ahead To $20,000 Bitcoin

In last week’s Investor Alert, our investment team shared with you a report from Morgan Stanley that says Bitcoin’s price decline since December mimics the Nasdaq tech bubble in the late 1990s. This isn’t earth-shattering news in and of itself. The main difference is that the bitcoin rout happened at 15 times the rate as the tech bubble.

Morgan Stanley has some good news for Bitcoin bulls, however: The 70 percent decline is “nothing out of the ordinary,” and what’s more, such corrections “have historically preceded rallies.” Just as the Nasdaq gained back much of what it lost in the subsequent years—before the financial crisis pared losses even further—bitcoin could similarly be ready to stage a strong recovery.

One research firm, in fact, believes Bitcoin and other digital coins, or “alt-coins,” have likely found a bottom. New York-based Fundstrat, headed by strategist Thomas Lee, issued a statement to investors last week saying that, though a cryptocurrency bull market isn’t necessarily underway, the worst of the pain could be “largely over.”

Fundstrat research shows that periods of cryptocurrency consolidation, or “purgation,” generally last 70 to 231 days. Bitcoin hit its all-time high in mid-December, almost 70 days ago as of March 26. Taking into consideration Fundstrat’s estimates, then, it’s possible the bear market could conclude sometime between now and early August.
 

In the meantime, Lee writes, alt-coin investors should stick with larger-cap cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Ripple.

 

Take the Long-Term View

It’s helpful to compare Bitcoin with Nasdaq, as Morgan Stanley did, but what about comparing the current cycle with one from the past?

In June 2011, Bitcoin peaked at nearly $30 and found a bottom of $2.02 five months later, in November. It would be an additional 15 months before it returned to its former high. This might seem like a long time to some, but investors who managed to get in at the bottom would have seen their position grow more than 1,300%.

So can Bitcoin do the same today? Obviously no one can say for sure, but what I can say with certainty is that Bitcoin, like all digital coins, is highly volatile. Plus, there’s not quite 10 years’ worth of data, meaning it’s been difficult to identify trends.

Cryptocurrencies are also currently facing tougher oversight from several world governments and central banks, not to mention Facebook and Twitter’s bans on ads promoting them—obstacles they didn’t have to contend with back in 2011 and 2012.

But I remain bullish. Cryptocurrencies are still in their very early stages. To return to the comparison with tech stocks, we don’t know at this point which digital coins will be tomorrow’s equivalent of Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook. A long-term view is key.

Finally, I still believe in the power of Metcalfe’s law, which says that as more and more people adopt a new technology—cell phones, for instance, or Facebook—its value goes up geometrically. A poll conducted in February shows that just under 8% of American adults report ever owning or purchasing any cryptocurrencies. Market penetration, then, hasn’t been as pervasive as some might expect, but as people increasingly become more confident in dipping their toes in the space, demand could rise and, with it, prices.

 

Author Frank Holmes

 

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Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Vitalik Wants You to Pay to Slow Ethereums Growth

Could adding a new fee help preserve ethereum in the long term?

It's a contentious statement in light of the debates ongoing across blockchains over how and when users should pay to support what amount to global computing networks. However, the concept is now gaining notable momentum on ethereum, most recently from the creator of the world's second-largest blockchain himself, Vitalik Buterin.

Buterin's concept, described in a recent blog post, revolves around so-called "rent fees," whereby users would be asked to pay to use the network based on how long they'd like their data to remain accessible on the blockchain.

The idea has recently seen interest generally, as ethereum developers have sought to cope with the platform's increased adoption, and, in turn, the increased amount of data being added that all network nodes need to store.

In short, it's a tragedy of the commons issue – if too many people use the resource for free, the network starts taking on the costs itself. And there's plenty of evidence to suggest that there is already reason to worry.

With rising use spurred by popular apps and ICOs, notable developers, including ethereum researchers Vlad Zamfir and Phil Daian, believe the problem needs to be addressed now.

"No one likes talking about rent, but we need to have this conversation," ethereum developer and Thiel fellow Raul Johnson recently tweeted.

"Core developers need to relay this information to the smart contract developer community ASAP to get their opinions on the matter," he continued, adding:

"The current system as it stands is unsustainable."
 

Fees, explored

Still, Buterin's backing could be a sign that momentum might build around the idea.

So far, he has broached the idea with a pair of proposals on the subject, including a succinct possible solution he calls "a simple and principled way to compute rent fees." And Buterin's first proposal is as simple as its title suggests.

The idea is to compute fees based on a long-term limit on the "state," a slice of special ethereum data that node operators need to store, which tracks who owns the current information about all apps (including user balances, who has posted so much data in, say, a Twitter replacement app and so on).

Under the proposal, state data stored in a node computer's RAM – now about 5GB – will never be allowed to exceed 500 GB. To ensure this, users will have to pay fees based on how long their data is stored. In this way, data is kept in check, since fees will grow if storage creeps toward that limit.

One notable part of Buterin's proposal is that he tries to incorporate a scaling change that ethereum developers have long wanted to add to the platform.

Although the most recent roadmap claims deployment is still years away, "sharding," as it's known, could potentially boost the amount of resources a database can handle by splitting up the data. In ethereum, the idea is, each node wouldn't have to store all of ethereum's historical data – just a slice of it.

"With sharding, the maximum acceptable state size would be per-shard, so the above fees would be decreased by a factor of 100," Buterin said.

Buterin also tries to address another key problem with rent: its bad user-experience. Most rent proposals today would require users to know how long their data will need to live ahead of time, which would be prone to error.

His second proposal explores a way of quashing this annoying guessing game by letting users use their state even after it has expired. Essentially, they would prove that their state existed at a previous point in time, with the help of a cryptographic technique called a "Merkle proof."
 

Deep-rooted problem

One problem with all this, though, is that fees, kind of like taxes, are never popular.

Bitcoin's years-long debate, for example, mostly centered on fees and the trade-offs associated with them. If fees are increased, less data will be stored, making full nodes easier to run. The downside, of course, is it would make the cryptocurrency more expensive to use.

One question is whether ethereum users and developers will react the same way, arguing "the rent is too damn high." In this way, Johnson worries that suddenly adding extra fees would alarm developers who have already deployed apps on ethereum.

Johnson argues for changes that aren't so knee-jerk and should be phased in slowly to give developers time to adjust.

Not to mention, some believe a similar rent needs to be applied to all cryptocurrencies. Indeed, scaling problems – and the associated fees – are a problem across blockchains.

Daian went as far as to argue that bitcoin needs to apply the same model. Like ethereum, bitcoin currently doesn't charge for the lifetime of a coin.

"Bitcoin is not free of these issues," he said, arguing that its simpler model incentivizes state bloat in a variety of ways, "exposing users to a variety of other consequences of mispriced storage."

Pricing resources to the right degree is such an important area of research, that Daian, a smart contract researcher at IC3, and others at the institute have set up an initiative called Project Chicago dedicated to the effort.

Even if this is a lesser-explored area and researchers haven't yet found a concrete solution, he's optimistic.

Daian concluded:

"No cryptocurrency has figured out good models for pricing these resources thus far, and ethereum's storage rent represents a step in the right direction towards these goals.

 

Author: Alyssa Hertig Updated Mar 28, 2018 at 03:07 UTC

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Bitcoin, Ethereum, And Litecoin Are The Most Popular Cryptocurrency Investments Among Millennials

Bitcoin, Ethereum, And Litecoin Are The Most Popular Cryptocurrency Investments Among Millennials

Bitcoin, Ethereum, And Litecoin Are The Most Popular Cryptocurrency Investments Among Millennials

 

Millennials love cryptocurrencies. For a couple of reasons. One of them is the technology behind them that promises to modernize capitalism, and free it from the tight control of big governments and big banks. The other reason is the potential cryptocurrencies have to make investors rich quickly, provided that they continue to rise at an astronomical pace.

That’s why, among millennials, cryptocurrencies were a popular choice to invest $10,000 in, in a recent survey of 1000 Americans.

Specifically, the survey found that 9.19% of millennials (18-34) would invest the $10,000 in cryptocurrencies, compared to 4.04% of Generation Xers (35-54), and (3.08%) of Baby Boomers (55+).

What’s more interesting is that Bitcoin remains by far the most popular choice, followed by Ethereum, and Litecoin. Specifically, 76% of the millennials in the survey said that they would invest the $10,000 in Bitcoin, 12% in Ethereum, and 12% in Litecoin—see table 1.

 

Table1

 

In Which Cryptocurrencies Millennials Will Invest $10,000

Source: LendEDU

To a great extent, the survey results are as one might have expected. The survey rankings of major cryptocurrencies match their market capitalization rankings—see table 2. The only exception is Ripple, which is third in market capitalization, and nowhere to be found in the survey rankings.

That means Litecoin is more popular than Ripple.

Table 2

Cryptocurrencies by Market Capitalization

*As of Sunday March 25, 2018, at 11 a.m

Source: Coinranking.com
 

There are a couple explanations for that. One of them is that the survey sample is extremely small, and therefore could easily have missed those who could invest the $10,000 in Ripple. Another answer is that the rise of Ripple in market capitalization is fairly recent, and therefore has yet to capture the attention of the average millennial investor.

 

Contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis – BCH/USD Struggling to Recover

Bitcoin Cash Price Weekly Analysis – BCH/USD Struggling to Recover

Key Points

Bitcoin cash price corrected higher but it struggled to move above the $1,080-1,100 against the US Dollar.

There is a significant bearish trend line forming with resistance at $1,000 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from SimpleFX).

The pair may continue to struggle and it could decline below the $950 support in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price is struggling to gain upside momentum against the US Dollar. BCH/USD remains at a risk of more losses below the $950 support.
 

Bitcoin Cash Price Resistance

There was a minor upside recovery initiated in bitcoin cash price from the $640 swing low against the US Dollar. The price recovered above the $800 resistance and the 50% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $1,157 high to $640 swing low. Moreover, there was a break above the $1,000 level and the $1,020 pivot level. However, the price faced a lot of sellers near the $1,080 and $1,100 resistance levels.

 

More importantly, a significant bearish trend line with resistance at $1,000 on the 4-hours chart of the BCH/USD pair also acted as a hurdle. Lastly, the price failed to move above the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last drop from the $1,157 high to $640 swing low. At the moment, the price is moving lower and is trading below the $1,000 level and the 100 simple moving average (4-hours). As long as the price is below the $1,000 level and the 100 SMA, it remains at a risk.

On the downside, the $950 level is a crucial support. If the price drops below the mentioned $950 support, it could move back in the bearish zone in the near term.

 

Looking at the technical indicators:
 

4-hours MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is moving back in the bearish zone.

4-hours RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BTC/USD is now well below the 50 level.

Major Support Level – $950

Major Resistance Level – $1,000

 

Author AAYUSH JINDAL •  MAR 25, 2018 • 04:03

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Reddit Reportedly Removes Bitcoin As Payment, Cites ‘Coinbase Change’

Reddit Reportedly Removes Bitcoin As Payment, Cites ‘Coinbase Change'

Twee

Reddit Reportedly Removes Bitcoin As Payment, Cites ‘Coinbase Change’

Reddit has reportedly removed the option for users to pay for their premium membership program, Reddit Gold, in Bitcoin (BTC) citing an “upcoming Coinbase change”, according to a Reddit post in subreddit /r/btc published March 23.

Reddit user BitcoinXio posted a video of the steps to give another user Reddit Gold, showing that the only payment options are PayPal and credit card.

Reddit user emoney40, a moderator of several subreddits but not /r/btc, commented that the change is due to the Coinbase Commerce change:

“The upcoming Coinbase change, combined with some bugs around the Bitcoin payment option that were affecting purchases for certain users, led us to remove Bitcoin as a payment option.”

Coinbase posted on its Medium page in early March 2018 about retiring Coinbase Merchant Tools in place of Coinbase Commerce, which they acknowledged “may be disruptive to Coinbase Merchant Tool customers.” As of April 30, merchants that used Coinbase Merchant Tools will no longer have access to that product, with May 31 as the final date for the required switch to Coinbase Commerce.

User emoney40 also said that adding BTC back as a payment option is not a guarantee:

“We're going to take a look at demand and watch the progression of Coinbase Commerce before making a decision on whether to reenable.”

Some Reddit users on the thread commented that they were not using BTC to pay for Reddit Gold anyway, due to the high transaction fees. However, in February BTC transaction fees dipped below the price of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) fees, which had been one of the main talking points of BTC’s competitors.

 

Author Molly Jane Zuckerman

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 23rd Mar 2018 – Another Reversal Pattern

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 23 Mar 2018 – Another Reversal Pattern

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 03/23/2018 – Another Reversal Pattern

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

 

Bitcoin price failed to break past the $9,000 level after news of a potential shutdown of Binance in Japan broke out.

However, bitcoin price could still form an inverse head and shoulders pattern, which is a potent reversal signal.

Technical indicators are showing that bullish momentum could stay in play.

Bitcoin price sold off recently but could form a short-term reversal pattern on its 1-hour time frame and draw more buyers back in.
 

Technical Indicators Signals

 

The 100 SMA just crossed above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that buyers are gaining the upper hand. The 200 SMA is also holding as dynamic support at the moment, but a break lower could lead to another pickup in selling pressure.

 

Stochastic is pointing down to show that bears have the upper hand while RSI is turning lower as well. Both oscillators are nearing oversold conditions, though, so sellers could still let buyers take over soon.

 

An area of interest is located around $8,000 and a bounce from here could form the right shoulder of the reversal pattern. Bitcoin price has yet to break past the neckline around $9,200 to confirm a potential uptrend. This should last by around $2,000 or the same height as the chart formation.

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

 

Bitcoin price failed to break past the $9,000 level after news of a potential shutdown of Binance in Japan broke out.

However, bitcoin price could still form an inverse head and shoulders pattern, which is a potent reversal signal.

Technical indicators are showing that bullish momentum could stay in play.

Bitcoin price sold off recently but could form a short-term reversal pattern on its 1-hour time frame and draw more buyers back in.

 

Technical Indicators Signals

 

The 100 SMA just crossed above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that buyers are gaining the upper hand. The 200 SMA is also holding as dynamic support at the moment, but a break lower could lead to another pickup in selling pressure.

 

Stochastic is pointing down to show that bears have the upper hand while RSI is turning lower as well. Both oscillators are nearing oversold conditions, though, so sellers could still let buyers take over soon.

 

An area of interest is located around $8,000 and a bounce from here could form the right shoulder of the reversal pattern. Bitcoin price has yet to break past the neckline around $9,200 to confirm a potential uptrend. This should last by around $2,000 or the same height as the chart formation.

 

 

Author: SARAH JENN • MAR 23, 2018 • 04:03

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Bitcoin Price Breaks $9,000, Does Not Stay For Long

Bitcoin Price Breaks $9,000, Does Not  Stay For Long

Bitcoin Price Breaks $9,000, Does Not Stay For Long

March 20: the Bitcoin (BTC) price broke the $9,000 mark today after a rough start to the year in which the price decreased by nearly 70 percent from the December high of $20,000.

Following the December high the BTC price has moved downward in fits and starts. On January 17, BTC price was down to $9,724, less than half of where it had been a month previously when it scraped the underside of $20,000. The month of February started with BTC dipping below $9,000 for the first time since late Nov. 2017.

By February the price had sunk to just $5,922, with skeptics claiming that it could sink even lower. By late February and early March, BTC was fluctuating around the $9,000 mark, with changes spurred by news of new regulations on exchanges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A return to prices above $9,000 would provide the confidence many traders and investors need for the BTC value to grow even further.

As Cointelegraph reported March 20, the G20 decided not to crack down on cryptocurrency, and opted for a more moderate approach of simply classifying cryptocurrencies as assets. Some see this as a possible cause for crossing the $9,000 psychological threshold.

Others are more skeptical that the results will be long lasting, and see the most recent bump above $9,000 to be part of a holding pattern that requires another, stronger increase in order to break the barrier.

At press time, Bitcoin was trading at $9,017
 

Author: Salih SARIKAYA

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

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Bitcoin Following Nasdaq Path but 15 Times Faster

Bitcoin Following Nasdaq Path but 15 Times Faster

Bitcoin Following Nasdaq Path but 15 Times Faster

Morgan Stanley put out a note to its clients on Monday the 19th breaking down Bitcoin trading in comparison to the Nasdaq during the dot-com crash 20 years ago.

Bitcoin Similar to Dot-Coms Through Bear Markets

According to the report, Bitcoin is behaving very similar to the way the Nasdaq did in 2000. There is parity in the pattern of price declines and the rally of 250 -280 percent “in their most exuberant period” just before the bear market.

“Just that the bitcoin rally was around 15 times the speed,” Sheena Shah, strategist at Morgan Stanley said.

There have been four bear markets with Bitcoin since 2009 and through each, the cryptocurrency has lost between 28 and 92 percent of its value. It lost 70% of its value from it’s $20,000 high mark in December to $7,000 in February before recovering slightly to where it is today over $8,000. Averaging a loss of between 40-50% of its value through each bear market is similar to the Nasdaq’s performance 18 years ago Shah said.

According to the Morgan Stanely report trading volume can also be seen as a red flag. The Bitcoin trading volume has jumped nearly 300% since the market decline in December but each rally saw volumes fall ahead of the bear market to come. Shah said regarding the trading volumes;

“The follow-up rally for both bitcoin and the Nasdaq always saw falling trading volumes. Rising trade volumes are thus not an indication of more investor activity but instead a rush to get out.”
 

Tethers Effect on Market Trading

The Morgan Stanley report continued to point out the effect that the Tether cryptocurrency may have had on market trading. Citing that during the latest bear market the Tether USDT coin which is purportedly backed up one to one with US Dollars took up a bigger share of Bitcoin trading compared to the three historically major trading currencies; US Dollar, Chinese Yuan and the Japanese Yen.

“The coin USDT is not a major funding unit but its increasing use is an interesting development,” Shah wrote. “Over the coming years, we think that market focus could turn increasingly towards cross trades between cryptocurrencies/tokens, which would transact via distributed ledgers only and not via the banking system.”

Bloomberg reported in January that Tether has been subpoenaed by the US commodities trading commission under speculation that they do not hold the $2.2 billion in reserve in order to back their token. Bitcoin’s price continues to vacillate around the $8,000 mark early this week after enjoying a $1,000 price boost from the news that the G20 would not be receiving any further regulatory recommendations from the FSB.

 

Author JOHN MCMAHON • MAR 20, 2018 • 04:03

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur
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