- Ex-CEO of Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius Withdrew $10M Weeks Before Company Froze Customer Accounts: Report
Alex Mashinsky, the embattled founder and former CEO of Celsius Network, removed $10 million from the now bankrupt crypto lender weeks before Celsius halted customer withdrawals in June, the Financial Times reported, citing unnamed sources.
Mashinsky, who resigned as CEO Sept. 27 Eastern time, withdrew the cryptocurrency in May, according to the FT. At the time, crypto markets were being roiled by the collapse of the Terra ecosystem, which saw $60 billion in value evaporate that month.
Celsius is supposed to submit details about Mashinsky’s transactions to the court in a few days as part of a wider financial disclosure by the company, the FT reported.
A Mashinsky spokesperson, cited by the paper, said that the entrepreneur had disclosed to an unsecured creditors committee (UCC) in the bankruptcy proceedings that he and his family had $44 million in crypto frozen with Celsius following the withdrawal. The spokesperson said that Mashinsky “‘withdrew a percentage of cryptocurrency in his account, much of which was used to pay state and federal taxes,'” according to the FT.
- Spanish Telecom Giant Telefonica Invests in Bit2Me, Pilots Cryptocurrency Payments
Telefonica, the fourth-largest telecom company in Europe, has decided to tackle the cryptocurrency business. The company announced an investment in Bit2me, a Spain-based cryptocurrency exchange, that will give it access to the implementation of the technology stack of the organization. The investment, whose details and numbers were not disclosed, is the first move of the company in the crypto area.
Unnoficial sources disclosed that this participation could be between $20 and $30 million, giving Telefonica a very important stake in Bit2me. This fund injection would be giving the exchange support to keep operating during this cryptocurrency market downturn, in which other exchanges have been forced to lay off staff and take operating cost-cutting measures. Bit2me had just secured funds for $2.5 million from private investors prior to Telefonica’s investment.
- Pro-Russian Paramilitary Groups Raise $400,000 in Bitcoin, Crypto to Avoid Sanctions: TRM Labs
Pro-Russian groups are conducting crowdfunding campaigns, raising a significant amount in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to evade U.S. sanctions and support paramilitary operations in war-torn Ukraine, according to research by blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs.
“As of last week, we identified about $400,000 that have been raised since the beginning of the invasion in February,” Chris Janczewski, head of global investigations at TRM Labs, said in an interview with CNBC.
One of those groups, according to Janczewski, is “Task Force Rusich,” described by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as a “neo-Nazi paramilitary group that has participated in combat alongside Russia’s military in Ukraine.”.
https://decrypt.co/111080/pro-russian-groups-raising-sanctions-evading-funds-crypto
- Stablecoin Issuer Tether Increases US Treasury Portfolio, Cuts Commerical Paper Holdings to Below $50M
Stablecoin issuer Tether has cut its commercial paper holding to less than $50 million, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in a tweet.
As of September 30, the company increased its holding of U.S. Treasuries to 58.1% of its total portfolio from 43.5% of its total portfolio as of June 30.
Commercial papers are short-term unsecured debt issued by companies, where the value of the papers is dependant on the issuing company. Commerical papers are less stable than other debt instruments, like U.S. government treasuries.
Tether had earlier said that it will bring its commercial paper holdings to zero by the end of the year on the back of growing concerns over the stability of its ecosystem and its stablecoin USDT.
In May, the company held $20.1 billion of commercial papers, which it reduced to $8.5 billion by June 30.
The USDT issuer had also appointed a new auditor BDO Italia to take over its regular attestation reports. Recently, the firm was ordered by a New York-court judge to produce financial records relating to the backing of USDT.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7223565
- Nexo-labeled address withdraws $153M in Wrapped BTC from MakerDAO
Just a few days after market analysts predicted a 50% drop in NEXO price due to regulatory pressure and investor concerns, a crypto wallet address labeled as NEXO 0x8fd withdrew 7,758.8 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) — roughly worth $153 million — from MakerDAO.
On Sept. 26, regulators from eight United States states filed a cease-and-desist order against Nexo under the allegations of offering unregistered securities to investors without warning. Moreover, Kentucky regulators accused Nexo of insolvency owing to liabilities exceeding assets when excluding Nexo.
Following suit, on Sept. 30, blockchain investigator Peckshield alerted the transfer of 7,758.8 wBTC from MakerDAO. One of the main reasons the crypto community chose to link the funds’ withdrawal with Nexo’s insolvency rumors is the name of the wallet — Nexo: 0x8fd.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/nexo-labeled-address-withdraws-153m-in-wrapped-btc-from-makerdao
- Stablecoin Issuer Tether Increases US Treasury Portfolio, Cuts Commerical Paper Holdings to Below $50M
Stablecoin issuer Tether has cut its commercial paper holding to less than $50 million, Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino said in a tweet.
As of September 30, the company increased its holding of U.S. Treasuries to 58.1% of its total portfolio from 43.5% of its total portfolio as of June 30.
Commercial papers are short-term unsecured debt issued by companies, where the value of the papers is dependant on the issuing company. Commerical papers are less stable than other debt instruments, like U.S. government treasuries.
Tether had earlier said that it will bring its commercial paper holdings to zero by the end of the year on the back of growing concerns over the stability of its ecosystem and its stablecoin USDT.
In May, the company held $20.1 billion of commercial papers, which it reduced to $8.5 billion by June 30.
- US Senator Says ‘I Love That Bitcoin Can’t Be Stopped’ Citing Concerns About National Debt and Inflation
U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) talked about bitcoin in an interview with Hard Money’s Natalie Brunell, published last week.
Discussing the merits of bitcoin, including how the cryptocurrency cannot be stopped, the senator from Wyoming said:
I love that it can’t be stopped especially because I’m concerned about our national debt. I’m concerned about inflation.
She continued: “I see people in my home state of Wyoming that are going to food banks now because they need fuel, they need gasoline, to get to their jobs, and they have to choose now between high-priced gasoline and food so they are going to food banks for their food.”
The senator further detailed: “So when we see things that are inflationary, when we see the value of a dollar drop when you go to the grocery store and you come out with one sack of food and used to for the same price come out with two, we really need to look at assets that are going to be there for the long term.” She noted:
That’s why to me it’s actually comforting to know that bitcoin is there.
She further explained that in some countries where the government is unstable, it can come to take people’s homes and property. The senator stressed:
Bitcoin is something the government cannot take.
- Terra’s Luna Classic Gains Big as Binance Burns Untold Tokens
The value of Luna Classic, LUNC, is up over 70% for the week and up over 44% for the month, hitting $0.000365 mid Sunday as traders awaited final token burn numbers from Binance. This as most cryptocurrencies saw minimal gains.
As impressive as the relative numbers are, the price is a far cry from its $100 price in April. But the trading activity in the last few days has been enough to vault LUNC into the top ten cryptocurrencies by trading volume, and boosting its market cap to over $2.1 billion, according to CoinGecko. That puts it in the neighborhood of Bitcoin Cash, wavering at the edge of the top 30 coins for the last seven days.
Luna Classic is the token of the now infamous Terra blockchain, which imploded in May and subsequently prompted lawmakers to consider a ban on similar algorithmic stablecoins.
https://decrypt.co/111070/terras-luna-classic-gains-big-as-binance-burns-untold-tokens
- Bitcoin Flat at $19K Ahead of Fed’s Emergency Meeting: Market Watch
The past week or so went quite smoothly for BTC, which spiked to $20,400 on Tuesday to mark a 12-day high before dropping sharply to $18,600. However, it bounced off at that point and calmed around $19,000 for the next several days, aside from one brief pump toward $20,000.
The weekend was particularly calm as bitcoin stood close to $19,000. Monday starts on a similar note, with BTC trading a few hundred dollars above that line.
However, the landscape can change later today as the US Financial Stability Oversight Council will have a meeting presided by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
“The preliminary agenda for the executive session includes an update from staff of the Federal Reserve and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on financial stability and energy market developments.” – said the department.
Previously, such meetings from the US financial authorities brought enhanced volatility to the crypto market, and given the fact that today’s is an “emergency” one, there could be even more fluctuations.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7223452
- Robert Kiyosaki calls Bitcoin a ‘buying opportunity’ as US dollar surges
Robert Kiyosaki, businessman and best-selling author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has called Bitcoin (BTC), silver and gold a “buying opportunity” amid the strengthening United States dollar and continued interest rate hikes.
In an Oct. 2 Twitter post to his 2.1 million followers, the author noted the prices of the three commodities — sometimes referred to as “safe haven” assets — would continue getting lower as the United States dollar strengthens, proving its worth once the “FED pivots” and drops interest rates.
In a post the day before, Kiyosaki predicted this “pivot” could happen as soon as January 2023, which would see the U.S. dollar “crash” in the same way as the recently collapsed British pound.
“Will the US dollar follow English Pound Sterling? I believe it will. I believe US dollar will crash by January 2023 after Fed pivots,” said Kiyosaki, adding he “will not be a victim of the F*CKed FED.”
Since as early as May. 2020, Kiyosaki has been a proponent for asset classes that the Fed cannot directly manipulate, having once warned investors to “Get Bitcoin and save yourself” following the Fed’s immediate mass money printing episodes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
