Coinapult has halted its services after a compromise of its hot wallet lead to the theft of 150 BTC. Coinapult notified its customers via twitter to cease sending bitcoin to existing Coinapult addresses at this time. A notice on Coinapult's website currently reads: Continue reading
Category Archives: Fiat/BTC interfaces
Coinbase Compliance Chief Resigns
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the Chief Compliance Officer of Coinbase has resigned. Chief Compliance Officer Martine Niejadlik resigned Coinbase after spending a bit more than a year with the organization. The Free Beacon notes that recently investors and regulators have been critical of Coinbase's "outreach" efforts where Coinbase has noted that Bitcoin does not respect international sanctions as well as Coinbase's failure to definitively achieve licensing in every US state it claims to operate.
Winner Of 27K Bitcoins Purchased At USMS Auction Revealed
To date, the United States Marshal Service has allegedly held three auctions for a portion of the 144,000 bitcoins confiscated in the wake of the October 2013 Silk Road bust. These auctions are claimed by Qntra to have allegedly occurred due to the continued refusal by the USG to respond to FOIA requests for further information on the alleged winners of the Bitcoin auctions. To that end, Qntra conducted and has now concluded its own investigation into the identity of the winner of the largest sum of bitcoins in the auction held by the USMS on the 5th of March 2015. That person's identity can now be revealed as real estate advisor, property manager, investor and entrepreneur Larry Dean Silvey. Continue reading
Czech Ministry Fingers Heist Suspect
Czech Republic based Bitcoin exchange Bitcash.cz was allegedly hacked on November 11, 2013 and approximately 4000 bitcoins were stolen. The operator or operators almost succeeded in their efforts to remain anonymous with impunity, were it not for disgruntled users that named some suspected perpetrators in online forums. According to the 2014 yearly report of the analytics departmentt of the Czech Ministry of Finance, one of the named persons opened new bank account (in a Czech bank) and immediately transferred to there non-trivial amounts from an EU Bitcoin exchange, thus prompting a closer look from the Department. It concluded with a money laundering criminal complaint, which is currently waiting for court proceedings.
Mystery Startup Allegedly Raises Funds
A "stealth" startup, 21 Inc. is being reported to have allegedly raised 116 million United States dollars. The founder supposes the venture will do something to trigger mainstream Bitcoin adoption. A glance at their job advertisements (archived) suggests that this might just be another cloud mining venture as they appear to be looking for an "ASIC Design Engineer" and other hardware related positions.
Alleged USMS Auction Winner Leaves Eldritch Message
Reuters reports that an auction for 50,000 BTC held last week by the USMS was allegedly won by three bidders who each took home 27,000, 20,000 and 3,000 BTC respectively. Spokesman for the USMS Lynzey Donahue confirmed with Reuters via email that the transfer of the coins is complete, but did not specify who the winners are. The distribution of the 50,000 BTC believed to have been purchased at auction is as follows: Continue reading
Digital Hawala For The Poor
Former Netscape director Bill Barhydt has decided to enter the remittance market using Bitcoin as the underlying technology of his platform Abra. Migrant workers who are employed seasonally will send earnings to their family back home through services the likes of Western Union and MoneyGram. These brokers tend to charge upwards of $15 for a $100 or more cash transfer. Abra believes these fees on remittances can be reduced by using Bitcoin and what they noted as their own version of a hawala network. Continue reading
14 Bidders 34 Bids In Latest USMS Bitcoin Auction
Bloomberg reports that an auction held today by the USMS1 for 50,000 BTC attracted a total of 34 bids from 14 participants including third time bidders SecondMarket. The fenced goods are expected to be transferred to the winner/s of the auction by Monday at the earliest.
Alluding to Buterin's Waterfall, Gil Luria of Wedbush Securities Inc was quoted by Bloomberg as saying: Continue reading
Mirrored here as the USMS have deleted the pages for previous auctions. ↩
Silbert's BIT To Trade On Pink Sheets
Having allegedly gained approval from FINRA, Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Investment Trust will soon be available to trade via OTC Markets. Silbert's BIT, which has been allocated the ticker code of BTCV, has been classified by OTC Markets as "OTC Pink No Information". OTC Markets, previously known as Pink Sheets, provides a description of the type of companies one might find in the OTC Pink No Information category: Continue reading
CEO Of Bitcoin Exchange Killed In Thailand
Independent Reserve CEO Adam Tepper has died as a result of a motorbike accident in Thailand. Tepper, who is alleged to have not been wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, either struck his head on a street sign early Thursday morning according to the Phuket Gazette1 or slammed into a parked trailer Wednesday night as reported by the mainstream Australian television network 7News. Captain Thada Sodarak of the Chalong Police said: Continue reading
Another Thai news outlet confirms that Tepper hit a pole and was taken to Vachira Phuket Hospital, not Thalang Hospital as claimed by 7News. ↩