Category Archives: Cryptocurrencies

Case of man who falsely claimed to be bitcoin inventor referred to CPS

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Craig Wright’s case referred for potential perjury and forgery prosecution after losing legal battle with crypto firms

The case of Craig Wright, an Australian computer scientist who falsely claimed to be the creator of bitcoin, has been referred to the Crown Prosecution Service over a potential prosecution for perjury and forgery.

In March, Wright lost a legal battle with a coalition of cryptocurrency businesses who had pre-emptively sued to prevent him from enforcing his claim in the courts. In a sign of the extent of his defeat, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Mellor, took the unusual step of issuing an oral verdict within seconds of the case concluding.

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Winklevoss twins donate $1m each to Trump as champion of cryptocurrency

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Crypto tycoons claim Biden has ‘openly declared war against crypto’ in lengthy critique of administration policy

Cryptocurrency tycoons the Winklevoss twins have each donated $1m in bitcoin to Donald Trump’s campaign and pledged to vote for the former president in November, claiming Joe Biden had “openly declared war against crypto”.

Trump is “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, pro-business”, Cameron Winklevoss declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “And he will put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto.”

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Kabosu, dog that inspired ‘Doge’ meme and became face of Dogecoin, dies

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Atsuko Sato announces death of her shiba inu, whose 2010 photo led her to be described as the ‘Mona Lisa of the internet’

The Japanese dog whose photo inspired a generation of oddball online jokes and the £18bn Dogecoin cryptocurrency beloved by Elon Musk has died, her owner said.

“She quietly passed away as if asleep while I caressed her,” Atsuko Sato wrote on her blog on Friday, thanking the fans of her shiba inu called Kabosu – the face of the ‘Doge’ meme.

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Binance executive denied bail in Nigeria over money laundering charges

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Tigran Gambaryan faces allegations of ‘serious criminality’ on behalf of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange

A Nigerian court has ruled that Tigran Gambaryan, the Binance executive detained on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, can face trial on behalf of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

In a judgment in Abuja on Friday – Gambaryan’s 40th birthday – the presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, denied the American national bail, saying he was likely to abscond.

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Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX says it will be able to repay creditors full $11bn

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CEO confirms once company has sold off remaining assets it will have more than amount required

The bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has said it will be able to repay creditors the full $11bn (£8.8bn) it owes, as the boom-bust cycle repeats itself with a sharp increase in bitcoin prices.

John Ray III, who succeeded the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried as the chief executive of FTX shortly after its collapse, said that once the exchange had sold off its remaining assets, it might have more than $16bn – well in excess of its debts.

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Sam Bankman-Fried appeals FTX fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence

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Ex-CEO and former crypto mogul, 32, was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money in November

Sam Bankman-Fried appealed his fraud convictions and 25-year prison sentence on Thursday.

The ex-CEO of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange was found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy to launder money in November and sentenced to more than two decades in federal prison in late March. The former crypto mogul, 32, had signaled he would contest the court’s rulings shortly after he learned of his sentence. It’s not yet clear on what grounds Bankman-Fried will argue for an appeal, which could take years.

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Australian computer scientist is not bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, high court rules

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Judge says evidence for his conclusion that Craig Wright did not create bitcoin is ‘overwhelming’

Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, is not the Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, a high court judge has ruled, ending a fractious two-month trial in London.

In a highly unusual decision, the presiding judge, Mr Justice Mellor, issued the verdict within seconds of the case concluding, promising to issue a “fairly lengthy written judgment” in due course.

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Bitcoin price nears $73,000 in fresh record high

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Cryptocurrency rises as UK financial regulator says it will allow trading of crypto-backed securities

Bitcoin has reached a new record price of almost $73,000 (£57,000), as the UK financial regulator said it would allow the trading of cryptocurrency-backed securities.

The cryptocurrency hit a fresh high of $72,720 as of Monday evening having last week overtaken its previous November 2021 high of nearly $69,000.

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Bitcoin hits new record high above $70,000; US investor ends Currys chase – business live

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Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as exchange-traded funds help biggest cryptocurrency rally

The European Commission’s use of Microsoft email and office software broke its own privacy rules, an EU privacy watchdog has ruled.

Microsoft’s software transferred personal data outside the EU, breaching privacy rules, according to the European Data Protection Supervisor.

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Crypto firm moved $4.2m of assets to digital wallet linked to alleged Russian arms dealer

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Analysis shows link between Copper Technologies and Jonatan Zimenkov, who was later hit with US sanctions over Ukraine invasion

A cryptocurrency firm transferred digital assets worth more than $4.2m to a crypto wallet belonging to a member of an alleged Russian arms-dealing network who was later hit with US sanctions, it can be revealed.

Details of the transactions involving Copper Technologies raise questions about whether UK laws governing crypto have adapted quickly enough to keep pace with a rapidly evolving sector that has come under increasing scrutiny over the level of anonymity it can provide.

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Craig Wright denies forging documents to support bitcoin claim

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Australian attacks qualifications of his own expert witness during testimony at high court in London

Craig Wright, the Australian computer scientist who says he invented bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, has denied forging documents to support his claim.

In his first day of giving evidence at the high court in London on Tuesday, Wright flatly denied any forgery or falsification and attacked the qualifications of his own expert witness who found otherwise. The hearing was part of a lawsuit brought by Copa, a coalition of cryptocurrency-linked tech firms that seek to invalidate his claims.

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Three dead after being pulled from water off Phillip Island – as it happened

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This blog is now closed.

Morrison to take up separate position at Dyne Asset Management

As we brought you just earlier, Scott Morrison will be taking up a role with international advisory and consulting firm American Global Strategies after his resignation from politics late February.

Well, firstly, I think we should be quite thoughtful of which category we’re talking about for farmers. If you’re talking about fruits and vegetables, we are in material deflation and have been for about four months … That is because of demand and supply in Australia. It’s a domestic product, it’s subject to demand and supply. It is causing pain for many of those farmers. But hopefully that situation will change with regard to the new year.

… We buy directly [where we can] from farmers, and we try and smooth out the price that they get so that they can plan and manage their business effectively.

But when you look at the red meat index, it does look like it’s trending up based on what’s happening offshore. So these things do flow through …

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‘The Lord told us to’: US pastor says he stole $1m from Christians to remodel home

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Couple are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as ‘INDXcoin’, to Christian community in Denver, Colorado

A Colorado pastor who is charged with stealing more than $1m from his Christian community in a cryptocurrency scheme has admitted to the fraud but argued that God instructed him to carry it out.

Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, are charged with creating and selling their cryptocurrency, known as “INDXcoin”, to Christians based in their home town of Denver, Colorado, allegedly telling would-be investors that the Lord had told him people would become rich if they invested, the state’s division of securities announced in a press release on Thursday.

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FBI investigates fake tweet about bitcoin investment fund that led to price spike

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Hackers posted false news about a widely anticipated announcement that the SEC was expected to make about bitcoin

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Wednesday that it is working with the FBI to investigate a fake message posted on its X social media account.

On Tuesday hackers posted false news about a widely anticipated announcement that the SEC was expected to make about bitcoin, leading the cryptocurrency’s price to spike and alarming observers. An SEC spokesperson confirmed to the Guardian in a statement that the unauthorized post on the @SECGov account “was not drafted or created by the SEC”.

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SEC says ‘compromised’ account to blame for tweet approving Bitcoin ETF

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Price of bitcoin briefly spiked more than $1,000, as ETF would have given way to invest without buying outright on a crypto exchange

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said Tuesday that a post sent from the agency’s account on the social platform X/Twitter announcing the approval of a long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded fund was “unauthorized”, and that the agency’s account had been “compromised”.

The price of bitcoin briefly spiked more than $1,000 after the post on X claimed: “The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges.” Cryptocurrency investors had already driven bitcoin’s price above $46,000 in anticipation of the approval.

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HyperVerse crypto promoter ‘Bitcoin Rodney’ arrested and charged in US

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Internal Revenue Service alleges Rodney Burton was part of a network that made ‘fraudulent’ presentations claiming high returns for investors based on crypto-mining operations that did not exist

A promoter of the HyperVerse crypto investment scheme has been arrested and charged in the US for his alleged role in the scheme, with court documents claiming he was part of a network that made “fraudulent promotional presentations” to investors and potential investors.

Rodney Burton, who goes by the name “Bitcoin Rodney”, was arrested in Florida on Friday and remains in custody pending transfer to Maryland, where the charges were laid. He has been charged with operating and conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business.

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Asic faces questions over failure to warn consumers about HyperVerse crypto scheme

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Assistant treasurer Stephen Jones says concerns should have been raised about scheme that appeared to be selling ‘worthless investment products’

Chief executive of HyperVerse does not appear to exist

The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has questioned why Australia’s consumer watchdog did not issue a consumer warning against the HyperVerse crypto investment scheme in line with a number of overseas regulators.

A Guardian Australia investigation has revealed widespread losses to the HyperVerse scheme, which escaped regulator attention in Australia despite one overseas authority warning it was a possible “scam” and another describing it as a “suspected pyramid scheme”.

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Sam Bankman-Fried will not face second trial after multibillion-dollar crypto fraud conviction

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US prosecutors say ‘strong public interest’ in prompt resolution of case against 31-year-old outweighs benefits of second trial

US prosecutors say they do not plan to conduct a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last month of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

In a letter filed on Friday night in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the “strong public interest” in a prompt resolution of their case against the 31-year-old former billionaire outweighed the benefits of a second trial.

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‘They are so convincing’: Vera Gazzard lost her life savings to HyperVerse

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Australians who were convinced to put money into the Hyper group investment schemes say no one has been held to account for their losses

Geelong woman Vera Gazzard had plans for her $50,000 in savings. Elective surgery was on the list, as was help for her daughter who was expecting a second child.

But when an acquaintance recommended an investment opportunity called HyperVerse offering daily returns of 0.5% she jumped at the opportunity.

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Digital pound should not be considered until risks addressed, MPs warn

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Treasury select committee highlights concerns over data privacy and increased possibility of bank runs

The idea of creating a digital pound should not even be considered until the UK government and Bank of England address concerns over data privacy and the increased risk of bank runs, a parliamentary committee has warned.

MPs on the Treasury select committee said that while it was true that the rollout of a central bank digital currency could trigger fresh innovation and competition in the payments sector, serious questions remained about whether the positive effects outweighed the risks and costs.

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