The Crypto Beat - June 14, 2021
Here are all the latest stories related to cryptocurrencies Monday June 14, 2021.
Binance
CFO leaves Binance as exchange wades through regulatory hurdles
Binance has lost its top bean counter just as regulatory headwinds threaten to blow the troubled cryptocurrency exchange off its pedestal.
Binance announced early last week that Wei Zhou, the company’s chief financial officer for the past three years, had “decided to leave for personal reasons.” Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao’s traditionally chatty Twitter feed has so far said nothing about Zhou’s abrupt departure, which comes as the company is under assault on a growing number of legal fronts.
Since the year began, investigations into Binance’s activities have been launched by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). In May, Bloomberg reported that the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) were investigating Binance, allegedly on suspicion of money laundering and tax offenses. Source: CoinGeek
Crime
News that the US Justice Department was able to track down a Bitcoin payment worth $2.3 million extorted from Colonial Pipeline has sent shockwaves through the cryptocurrency community. Maybe digital currencies are not as anonymous as once thought.
Hunter Horsley, cofounder and CEO for Bitwise Asset Managemen, takes it one step further.
"Bitcoin is bad for crime."
Speaking to Yahoo Finance Live this week, Horsley pointed to data from U.S. cybersecurity analysis firm Chainalysis, which shows a downward trend in the use of cryptocurrencies by cybercriminals.
“In fact, between 2019 and 2020, the occurrence of crypto use in those scenarios is down about 80%,” he said. “So I think that criminals are getting smarter that crypto is a pretty poor tool for them, and with Colonial we saw that in full force.”
Elon Musk
Bitcoin jumps as Elon Musk suggests way that Tesla could start accepting it again
The price of Bitcoin was flirting with the $40,000 mark after Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk tweeted Sunday that the electric car company would start accepting the cryptocurrency again once at least half of it can be mined using clean energy.
"When there's confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions," Musk tweeted Sunday afternoon.
The cryptocurrency's price jumped to more than $39,400 by early Monday morning — nearly 12.5% over a 24 hour period.
Musk would not elaborate any further on the method of monitoring.
Silk Road
In First Interview Since Arrest, Silk Road Founder Ross Ulbricht Appeals To Bitcoin Users
Ross Ulbricht, founder of infamous bitcoin-based darknet marketplace Silk Road, called Bitcoin Magazine from prison to appeal for freedom.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
