Cryptocurrency
U.S Government makes biggest crypto grab, worth $1 billion
Thousands of BTCs worth $1 billion linked to a criminal marketplace were snatched by the US law enforcement agencies.
The U.S. Justice Department released a statement, yesterday night, which disclosed that it seized over $1 billion worth of bitcoin associated with a shady online marketplace – Silk Road.
Thousands of BTCs worth $1 billion were seized by the United States law enforcement agencies this week, in what the Justice Department disclosed was the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the agency.
READ: Bitcoin whale transfers $105 million worth of crypto, BTC trading at $15,800
The United States government will now try to prove in court the items are subjected to forfeiture. In the past, the government has later auctioned off forfeited cryptocurrencies.
In a report credited to CNBC, the U.S. Attorney David Anderson of the Northern District of California said in a civil complaint on Thursday,
“Silk Road was the most notorious online criminal marketplace of its day. The successful prosecution of Silk Road’s founder in 2015 left open a billion-dollar question. Where did the money go?”
READ: Rich Bitcoin investor moved $175 million worth of BTC for just $0.84
What you should know
Silk Road is a shady marketplace, where individuals use the online platform for buying illegal stuff that includes hard drugs, child pornography, malware, and use bitcoin in paying for such transactions.
The platform had earlier been shut down by U.S. federal authorities in 2013 and its Founder, Ross Ulbricht, was sentenced to life in prison two years later.
READ: U.S Department of Justice sets strategy targeted at crypto criminals
How did the crypto seizure happen?
The U.S. enforcement agencies were able to make such seizure through a unit within the Internal Revenue Service that specializes in tracking virtual currency transactions prevalent when using cryptos.
The Internal Revenue Service agents were able to identify 54 new bitcoin transactions executed on the shady platform.
Cryptocurrency
Investors fast using stablecoins rather than money in keeping their profits
USDC, a stablecoin project, in recent days has shown significant use among crypto investors.
In recent times the use of Stablecoins has gained momentum amid high volatility and the strong bullish trend currently in play at the crypto market.
Such evidence was attributed to the daily trading volume seen in the world’s leading stablecoins, which at the time of writing Tether’s price was $1.00 with a daily trading volume now at 43.4 billion.
Also, the fast-rising USDC, a stable coin project founded by Circle and Coinbase, in recent days has shown significant use among crypto investors.
Data retrieved from Glassnode revealed over 12million USDC were moved in just two transactions some hours ago.
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🐋 4,005,200 $USDC (4,005,393 USD)
withdrawn from #huobi to unknown walletView live on-chain exchange flow metrics:https://t.co/0pfW4ubkCQ
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) November 29, 2020
🏠 8,002,839 $USDC (8,002,969 USD)
moved in-house by #binanceView live on-chain exchange flow metrics:https://t.co/0PjZqBMbdi
— glassnode alerts (@glassnodealerts) November 29, 2020
READ: Ethereum whale transfers $78 million worth of Cryptos
What are Stablecoins?
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies created to minimize the price swings that occur in an asset. They are usually pegged to fiat currencies and often exchange-traded commodities.
Global Investors and traders are using it to give their investment portfolios exposure to the US Dollar during these times when uncertainty is high as a result of the worst pandemic (COVID-19) known to man.
Recall Nairametrics, a few months ago broke the news on, U.S national banks now permitted to hold reserve currencies for stablecoins (Tether, Circle), meaning more investors now use stable coins in hedging against the volatility often prevalent in the crypto market.
The letter which was released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) responds to questions regarding the application of stablecoin-related bank activities.
It concludes that national banks and federal savings associations may hold ‘reserves’ on behalf of customers who issue stablecoins in situations where the coins are held in hosted wallets.
What you should know
Tether is designed as a blockchain-based cryptocurrency whose digital coins in circulation are backed by the same value of traditional fiat currencies, like the U.S dollar, Japanese Yen, or the Euro. It trades under the ticker symbol ‘USDT’.
USDC is a fully collateralized US dollar stablecoin. It is an Ethereum powered coin and is the brainchild of CENTRE, an open-source project bootstrapped by contributions from Circle and Coinbase.
READ: Tether, the most promising stable coin, now the third most valuable cryptocurrency
- USDCs are issued by regulated and licensed financial institutions that maintain full reserves of the equivalent fiat currency in a 1 USDC: 1 USD ratio.
- Investors of stablecoins make money by earning dividends from the newly created digital coins given to them for holding such stablecoin stock.
Explore Data on the Nairametrics Research Website
Cryptocurrency
Ripple gains 12%, CTO owns at least a million XRP
Ripple CTO, David Schwartz disclosed that he owns between 1 million to 10 million XRP.
Ripple CTO, David Schwartz has disclosed more details about his crypto holdings.
What we know: From a series of tweets seen by Nairametrics, Schwartz, who is one of the original orchestras behind the creation of XRP Ledger, revealed he owned at least 1,000,000 XRP, valued at $555,000 at the time of writing. The crypto is up 12%.
READ: Ethereum robber transfers $1.5 million worth of Crypto
Let's just say more than 1 million and less than 10 million.
— David Schwartz (@JoelKatz) November 24, 2020
READ: Ripple’s big players move XRP worth over $50 million
At the time of writing, Ripple traded at $0.614954 with a daily trading volume of $11,844,053,933. XRP price is up 12.3% in the last 24 hours. It has a circulating supply of 45 Billion coins and a max supply of 100 Billion coins.
Recall some months back, Nairametrics revealed how Ripple’s Chief Technology Officer, David Schwartz, had revealed with regrets that he and his wife made bad decisions for their crypto portfolio in 2012 — resulting in the eight-figure worth of missed profit at current prices.
In a series of tweets recently released by Ripple’s CTO, he sold some Bitcoins for $750, and 40,000 Ether (ETH) for $1 each back then — a stash that would be worth more than $15.5 million in today’s prices.
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Meanwhile, wealthy Rich players seem to be upping their game in Q4, 2020, as regards moving XRP – the third most valuable crypto by market value, as lately seen by Nairametrics.
Many crypto experts anticipate the movement of such cryptos are coming from major stakeholders of Ripple, on the bias some of these wallets contain a significant amount of XRP.
READ: 2,257 investors globally own at least 1,000 Bitcoins
Explore Data on the Nairametrics Research Website
The world’s fast-emerging financial juggernaut, Ripple, recently disclosed it is selling roughly 33% of its stake in MoneyGram. It is its first sale of such shares since Ripple invested in the popularly known American remittance firm in 2019.
Data retrieved from Ripple’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Ripple owns 8.6% of shares outstanding in Moneygram or 6.22 million shares, including a warrant to purchase another 5.95 million shares for a total equity position of 12.2 million shares or 17% of MoneyGram’s shares outstanding.
Ripple disclosed it will be selling around 4 million shares, approximately 33.3% of its entire stake. After such a sale, the fintech company will still own at least 3.22 million shares or 4.44% of MoneyGram.
What you should know
MoneyGram is a fast-growing platform for cross-border P2P payments and money transfers around many countries.
Recall that Nairametrics exclusively broke the news in June, about MoneyGram receiving $20 million in funding from Ripple to enhance its payment solutions through a partnership system with many leading financial institutions.
- The funding by Ripple completes its $50 million offerings for some stake in MoneyGram to run its experimental program for testing the effectiveness of the digital token XRP.
- The deal would definitely give MoneyGram’s arch-rival, Western Union, a run for its money. Reports from different private sources, seen by Nairametrics, shows that Western Union is now bent on buying MoneyGram to scale its robust growth experienced lately.
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Ujah Gabriel
November 6, 2020 at 10:20 am
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