Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

The Daily Stormer website advocates for the purity of the white race, posts hate-filled, conspiratorial screeds against Blacks, Jews and women and has helped inspire at least three racially motivated killings.

It also made founder Andrew Anglin a millionaire.

Anglin has tapped a worldwide network of supporters to take in at least 112 Bitcoin since January 2017 today worth $4.8 million according to data shared with The Associated Press. Hes likely raised even more.

Anglin is one very public example of how radical right provocateurs are raising big money through cryptocurrencies. Banned by traditional financial institutions, theyve turned to digital currencies, which theyre using in ever more secretive ways to avoid the oversight of banks, regulators and courts, an AP investigation has found, based on legal documents, Telegram channels and blockchain data from Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency analytics firm.

Anglin owes more than $18 million in legal judgments in the United States to people he and his followers harassed and threatened.

Among them, he owes Muslim comedian Dean Obeidallah $4 million. And hes supposed to pay Taylor Dumpson, the first Black student body president of American University, $725,000 all the results of litigation over libel, invasion of privacy, inflicting emotional distress and intimidation via the Daily Stormer.

His victims have tried and failed to find him to collect. He has no obvious bank accounts or U.S. real estate holdings.

Online, hes highly visible most days, dozens of stories on the Daily Stormer homepage carry his name. In the real world, though, Anglins a ghost.

We were able to sue the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist organization, in essence out of existence, said Beth Littrell, a lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center whos helping represent one of Anglins victims.

But its harder, Littrell says, to use the legal system to stamp out hate groups today because theyre operating via online networks and virtual money.

In August 2017, a week after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Anglin received 14.88 Bitcoins, an amount chosen for its oblique references to a 14-word white supremacist slogan and the phrase Heil Hitler. Worth about $60,000 then, it was his biggest Bitcoin donation ever and is worth over $641,000 at todays exchange rate.

The source remains a mystery.

Anglin now faces federal charges for conspiring to plan and promote the deadly march.

By the time of Charlottesville, Anglin had been cut off by credit-card processors and banned by PayPal. Bitcoin was his main source of funding.

Ive got money to pay for the site for the foreseeable future, he wrote last December as Bitcoins price surged.

Bitcoin was developed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. It doesnt depend on banks. Transactions are validated and recorded on a decentralized digital ledger called the blockchain, which derives its authority from crowdsourcing rather than bankers.

As one white nationalist cryptocurrency guide circulating on Telegram puts it: We all know the Jews and their minions control the global financial system. When you are caught having the wrong opinion, they will take it upon themselves to shut you out of this system making your life very difficult. One alternative to this system is cryptocurrency.

Richard Spencer, a white supremacist, has dubbed Bitcoin the currency of the alt-right.

Its hard to tell how large a role cryptocurrency plays in financing the far right. Merchandise sales, membership fees, donations in fiat currencies, concerts, fight clubs and other events, as well as criminal activity, are also sources of revenue, government and academic research has shown.

Early adopters of Bitcoin, like Anglin, have profited handsomely from its increase in value. Bitcoin prices are notoriously volatile, though. Since April, the currency has shed a third of its value against the dollar, then took a further drubbing recently when China declared cryptocurrency transactions illegal.

Chainalysis collected data for a sample of 12 far-right entities in the United States and Europe that publicly called for Bitcoin donations and showed significant activity. Together, they took in 213 Bitcoin worth more than $9 million at todays value between January 2017 and April 2021.

These groups embrace a range of ideologies and include white nationalists, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and self-described free-speech advocates, united by a shared desire to fight the perceived progressive takeover of culture and government.

These people have real assets. People with access to hundreds of thousands of dollars can start doing real damage, said John Bambenek, a cybersecurity expert who has been tracking the use of cryptocurrency by far-right players since 2017.

Andrew Weev Auernheimer, Anglins webmaster for the Daily Stormer, has taken in Bitcoin worth $2.2 million at todays values. The Nordic Resistance Movement, a Scandinavian neo-Nazi movement thats banned in Finland, Counter-Currents, a U.S. white nationalist publishing house and the recently banned French group Gnration Identitaire have each received Bitcoin now worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, Chainalysis data show.

Two social media platforms that have been embraced by the far right Gab and Bitchute saw Bitcoin funding surge ahead of the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection.

Since 2017, Bitchute has gotten Bitcoin worth nearly $500,000 today. About a fifth of that rolled in last December.

Gab has gotten more than $173,000. Nearly 40% came in during December 2020 and January 2021, Chainalysis data show.

On Aug. 1, Gab announced it was stepping up its fight against financial censorship and creating its own alternative to PayPal to fight against the tyranny of the global elites.

While cryptocurrencies have a reputation for secrecy, Bitcoin was built for transparency. Every transaction is indelibly and publicly recorded on the blockchain, which enables companies like Chainalysis to monitor activity.

Individuals can obscure their identities by not publicly linking them to their cryptocurrency accounts, but, with Bitcoin, they cannot hide the transactions themselves.

Because of that, Anglin abandoned Bitcoin n November 2020 just as Donald Trump lost the presidential election and asked supporters to send him money only in Monero, a privacy coin designed to enhance anonymity by hiding data about users and transactions. He published a new guide in February on how to use Monero, with instructions for non-U.S. donors.

Every Bitcoin transfer is visible publicly. Generally, your name is not attached to the address in a direct way, but spies from the various woke anti-freedom organizations have unlimited resources to try to link these transactions to real names. With Monero, the transactions are all hidden. Anglin wrote.

Monero, Anglin wrote, is really easy. Most importantly, it is safe.

Others have reached the same conclusion.

Thomas Sewell, an Australian neo-Nazi facing criminal charges, is soliciting donations in Monero for his legal defense.

Jaz Searby, a martial arts instructor who headed an Australian chapter of the Proud Boys, is seeking donations Monero only to help spread our message to a generation of young Aryan men that may feel alone or fail to understand the forces that are working against us.

The Nordic Resistance Movement and Counter-Currents also solicit donations in cryptocurrencies including Monero, and NRM has experimented with letting supporters mine Monero directly on their behalf.

Do you really think how we operate our economy is any of your business? Martin Saxlind, the editor of NRMs magazine Nordfront, said in an email to AP reporters. Swedish banks have abused their control of the economy to deny us and others regular banking accounts for political reasons. Thats why we use cryptocurrency ... You should investigate the corrupt banks . . .

The Global Minority Initiative, which calls itself a prison relief charity for American white nationalists, also takes donations only in Monero or by postal money order.

And Frances Democratie Participative, a racist, anti-Semitic, anti-LGBTQ website banned by French courts in 2018, solicits donations in Monero only.

Money is the sinew of war, the site says. Thanks to your support we can continue to prevent Jews and their allies from sleeping soundly.

The AP sought out each of the groups and individuals named in this story. Most didnt reply to requests for comment. A few were unreachable. Others replied anonymously, sending anti-Semitic and pornographic content.

Shortly before his suicide, in December 2020, a French computer programmer named Laurent Bachelier sent 28.15 Bitcoins then worth over $520,000 to 22 far-right entities.

The bulk went to Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist influencer who graduated from Lyons Township High School and was banned from YouTube for hate speech. Fuentes would spend the coming weeks encouraging his tens of thousands of followers to lay siege to the Capitol. One bitcoin went to a Daily Stormer account.

I care about what happens after my death, Bachelier wrote in his suicide note. Thats why I decided to leave my modest wealth to certain causes and people. I think and hope that they will make a better use of it.

Since getting Bacheliers money, Fuentes ramped up recruiting for his America First livestream and expanded the reach of his America First Foundation, which says in corporate registration documents it advocates for conservative values based on principles of American Nationalism, Christianity, and Traditionalism.

The transactions became public only because of a tip to Yahoo News and the fact that Bachelier left digital traces that linked his Bitcoin address with his email. The money trail offered clear evidence that domestic extremism isnt purely domestic and showed how wealthy donors can use cryptocurrency to fund extremists around the world with little scrutiny.

Bacheliers money slipped into the United States without triggering alerts it might have had it landed via traditional banking. Thats because much of it notably the Bitcoin donation to Fuentes, then worth $250,000 passed through accounts that werent hosted by regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, according to Chainalysis.

Those exchanges, which can convert Bitcoin into dollars and other currencies, generally are regulated like banks, allowing authorities to get access to information or funds.

But cryptocurrency wallets can be unhosted, which means users control access. Unhosted wallets like Fuentes are akin to cash. They dont have to go through banks or exchanges that could flag suspicious transactions, verify a users identity or hand over money to satisfy a court judgment.

he Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based organization that sets global guidelines to protect against money laundering and terrorism financing, in June released its first report on far-right fundraising. It highlighted the groups use of cryptocurrencies and warned that transnational links among such actors are growing.

Similar to their jihadist counterparts, many of these groups have used the internet and social media to share propaganda and recruit ideologically-aligned supporters from around the world, the report said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic sealed borders, white nationalists continued to gather in virtual communities that allowed them to connect with people from around the world.

On Telegram, posts tagged with different flags stream together. Theres a burly White Boys Club in Kyiv, nationalists in Minnesota and men with pixelated faces in Greece, each posing around White Lives Matter banners. Images of people stomping on or burning colorful LGBTQ buttons and flags roll in from Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Croatia. Men with skull masks and rifles pose after tactical training in the woods in Poland. A person with a fascist flag stands in the rain in France. A man draped with a swastika banner looks out from a hill somewhere in the woods of America.

The transnational links make people feel they are part of a much larger community, said Marilyn Mayo, a senior research fellow with the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism. They can inspire each other and network.

Blockchain data show Anglins donors are part of a global community of believers who sent money to entities in multiple countries. Since 2017, donors to Anglin also have given Bitcoin to 32 other far-right groups and people in at least five countries, according to Chainalysis data.

The data also show money flowed into the sample of 12 far-right groups from cryptocurrency exchanges that serve customers all over the world, with Western and Eastern European-focused exchanges playing a growing role. Chainalysis uses web traffic data and economic activity patterns to estimate where the customers who use a given exchange are located.

European groups like the Nordic Resistance Movement and Gnration Identitaire also received donations from North America-focused exchanges. Similarly, U.S. entities like American Renaissance, Daily Stormer and WeAreChange got money via exchanges that serve customers in Western and Eastern Europe.

Kimberly Grauer, director of research for Chainalysis, said the shift to global exchanges certainly could be in order to obfuscate detection, but it could also be a sign that increasingly donations are coming in from all over the world.

While Anglin remains hidden, his money virtually untouchable, his debt grows. Each day that ticks by, he owes Tanya Gersh, a Jewish real estate agent in Montana, another $760.88 interest on a $14 million judgment he has failed to pay.

After Gersh got in a dispute with the mother of white supremacist Spencer in 2016, Anglin published her contact information and used his website to whip up trolls against her.

She got death threats, threats against her as a Jew and threats against her child. Shed sometimes pick up the phone and hear a gunshot. Gershs hair started falling out. She had panic attacks, sought counseling and considered fleeing.

The balm for all that came in 2019, when a federal court made clear that targeted anti-Semitic hate speech isnt protected by the First Amendment. But since that fleeting moment of victory, nothing has happened. Gersh has yet to see a penny of her $14 million.

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Cryptocurrency has become currency of the alt-right, white supremacists, hate groups - Chicago Sun-Times

Slatestone Wealth's Chief Market Strategist Kenny Polcari reacts to Chinas central bank declaring all transactions involving Bitcoin and other virtual currencies illegal.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that governments should stay out of regulating the cryptocurrency market.

"It is not possible to, I think, destroy crypto," Musk told New York Times columnist Kara Swisher during the Code Conference in Beverly Hills, California. "But it is possible for governments to slow down its advancement."

Instead, he believes that regulators should simply "do nothing" and "just let it fly."

BITCOIN MINERS EYE NUCLEAR POWER AS ENVIRONMENTAL CRITICISM MOUNTS

His comments come as the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, has referred to cryptocurrencies as the "Wild West" of digital assets and has pushed for greater regulation in the United States. Meanwhile, China launched its own crypto crackdown last week, declaring all transactions and mining activities in the country illegal.

Musk weighed in on China's ban, noting that part of it likely has to do with the country's "significant electricity generation issues."

"A lot of South China is having random power outages because the power demand is higher than expected," he explained. "Crypto mining might be playing a role in that."

Musk himself warned of the "insane" electricity consumption of Bitcoin mining earlier this year, and reversed course on accepting the world's largest cryptocurrency as an alternative form of payment for Tesla vehicles due to its heavy dependance on fossil fuels. However, the electric vehicle maker still holds Bitcoin on its balance sheet after purchasing $1.5 billion worth of it in February.

In addition to China's potential concerns about its energy consumption and environmental impact, Musk said that cryptocurrency is "fundamentally aimed at reducing the power of a centralized government" and that the Chinese "don't like that."

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Looking ahead, Musk expressed hope that the cryptocurrencies could help reduce "error and latency" in the financial system, but emphasized that he wouldn't call himself a "massive cryptocurrency expert."

"I think theres some value to cryptocurrency," Musk said. "I dont think its the second coming of the messiah, which they all seem to think."

As of the time of publication on Wednesday, the cryptocurrency market is trading higher, with Bitcoin currently around $42,000 per coin and rivals Ethereum and Dogecoin around $2,900 and 20 cents per coin, respectively, according to real-time price tracking by Coindesk.

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Elon Musk says cryptocurrency regulators should 'do nothing' and 'let it fly' - Fox Business

Cryptocurrency adoption continues gaining momentum in Switzerland as local financial authorities grant more regulatory approvals for crypto investment instruments.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has approved the Crypto Market Index Fund as the first crypto fund according to Swiss law, the authority officially announcedon Wednesday.

The fund is launched by Swiss asset manager Crypto Finance and is administered by investment management firm PvB Pernet von Ballmoos AG with custody by regulated custodian SEBA Bank AG.

FINMA noted that the newly approved fund is restricted to qualified investors, investing primarily in cryptocurrencies or digital assets based on the blockchain or distributed ledger technology.

The regulator said that the Crypto Market Index Fund may only invest in leading cryptocurrencies with a sufficiently large trading volume. According to Crypto Finance, the fund will track the performance of the Crypto Market Index 10, a product administered by the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The objective of the Crypto Market Index 10 is to reliably measure the performance of the largest, liquid crypto assets and tokens and to provide an investable benchmark for this asset class, Crypto Finance noted.

Related: SEBA Bank granted the first Swiss digital asset custody license

FINMA added that it would require investors to invest only through established counterparties that are based in a member country of the Financial Action Task Force and are subject to corresponding Anti-Money Laundering regulations.

In conjunction with the fund approval, FINMA has also approved SEBA Bank AG as an institutional-grade custodian service by granting the firm a CISA license. Previously, the authority officially allowed SIX Swiss Exchange to launch a digital marketplace and central securities depository built on distributed ledger technology in early September.

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First cryptocurrency fund approved in Switzerland - Cointelegraph

Neither the author, Tim Fries, nor this website, The Tokenist, provide financial advice. Please consult ourwebsite policyprior to making financial decisions.

Over the past year and a half, crypto-ransomware attacks have surged by over 300%, a recent report by Chainalysis reveals. Attacks have shown no signs of slackening in 2021, forcing the US Department of the Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to take additional measures.

OFAC has issued an updated advisory, highlighting the sanctions risks associated with making ransomware payments, as well as suggesting some remedies to deter future cyber-extortion attacks.

Ransomware has evolved into a sophisticated and aggressive form of malware, shutting the networks and systems down unless corporations agree to pay the requested ransom.

Recent ransomware attacks have shut down public transportation, taken down the largest fuel pipeline in the US, and have stolen the personal data of more than 40 million people, to name a few. Moreover, a look at data by a ransomware tracker reveals that over 20 major cyber-attacks take place each month.

To address these rising issues, the OFAC has updated its ransomware advisory. Here are three key updates:

The updated advisory notes that meaningful steps are taken to reduce the risk of extortion and will be considered a significant mitigating factor in any OFAC enforcement response. The report adds:

Such steps could include maintaining offline backups of data, developing incident response plans, instituting cybersecurity training, regularly updating antivirus and anti-malware software, and employing authentication protocols, among others.

Nevertheless, data by Chainalysis shows that ransomware payments have crossed $400 million, rising by over 300% from 2019 to 2020. Moreover, Chainalysis claims ransomware attackers are not slowing down in 2021.

As crypto-ransomware attacks reach new peaks with each passing day and officials from everywhere underscore the need for additional security measures, it turns out that Bitcoin ATMs are stacked with numerous vulnerabilities.

A recent study by Kraken Security Labs unveils that a specific model of Bitcoin ATMs, dubbed The General Bytes BATMtwo (GBBATM2), possesses multiple hardware and software vulnerabilities. The report said:

Multiple attack vectors were found through the default administrative QR code, the Android operating software, the ATM management system and even the hardware case of the machine.

Firstly, the study revealed that multiple ATMs contain a hash of a default factory setting administration key, meaning that many GBBATM2 owners havent changed the default admin QR code. This implies that if one manages to get his hands on the Administration Key QR-code, they can take over all the ATMs that havent changed that default code.

Further, the GBBATM2 container is only protected by a single tubular lock and has no local or server-side alarm to inform others when internal components are exposed. Therefore, it is relatively easy to access the full interior hardware of the device.

Moreover, the GBBATM2s Android operating system has very poor security features, making it pretty easy to gain direct access to the full Android UI. The ATMs also lack firmware and software verification functionalities.

Considering that the crypto ATM market is poised to see massive growth in the near future, such issues need to be addressed with more seriousness so that it doesnt open a potential loophole for exploiters.

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About the author

Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firms specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.

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Cryptocurrency Ransomware Payments Rose by 300% Last Year - The Tokenist

New Delhi: Amid uncertainty over its legitimacy in some of the largest economies, major cryptocurrencies lost momentum and declined in early trade on Tuesday.

Among the top 10 names, Ethereum was the biggest loser, down over 5 per cent. Polkadot, Cardano, Binance Coin and XRP dropped 3-5 per cent. Others also declined over 2 per cent.

The battle between the bears and bulls continues, which is probably why ETH has been in a consolidating phase over the past few days, trading in a range-bound fashion between $2,800 and $3,200. The asset faces a strong psychological resistance at $3,300, which if the asset crosses and sustains, is likely to witness another strong rally, said analysts at ZebPay Trade Desk.

The total volume in DeFi stood at $16.83B, 17.29 per cent of the total crypto market's 24-hour volume. The volume of all stable coins was $78.85B, 81.02 per cent of the total crypto market's 24-hour volume.

Meanwhile, cryptocurrency exchanges and providers of crypto services are scrambling to sever business ties with mainland Chinese clients after Beijing last Friday issued a blanket ban on all crypto trading and mining.

In a culmination of years of efforts to rein in the sector, 10 powerful Chinese government bodies including the central bank, said overseas exchanges were barred from providing services to mainland investors via the internet - a previously grey area - and vowed to jointly root out "illegal" cryptocurrency activities.

Tech View by Giottus Cryptocurrency ExchangeHedera Hashgraph is a blockchain platform that supports third party applications much like Ethereum and Solana. The key differentiator being that all such applications are supervised by a group of businesses (via an approved group of nodes). Though it raises questions about its decentralized nature, this strategy enables it to support high transaction speeds, which Hedera argues, ensures businesses get the guarantees they need on transaction finality and state. Recently, Indias premier institute, IIT Madras, joined Hederas governing council to drive its R&D in the blockchain space.

HBAR is the cryptocurrency of the platform and has been grabbing attention globally due to its recent price actions. HBAR rallied from $0.25 in the beginning of September to a high of $0.576 - a 2.3x gain within a couple of weeks. Since then, it entered a correction phase along with the rest of the market and is currently trading at $0.32. With this movement, it has formed a large head and shoulders pattern on the daily chart - a fundamentally bearish pattern which could send it down to $0.25 or lower if it plays out, especially with Bitcoins price actions currently indeterministic. It is also breaking its recent horizontal support level and has formed successive lower highs.

Major LevelsSupport: $0.3049, $0.2949Resistance: $0.379, $0.3915

(Time is in UTC and the daily time frame is 12:00 AM - 12:00 PM UTC)

(Views and recommendations given in this section are the analysts' own and do not represent those of ETMarkets.com. Please consult your financial adviser before taking any position in the asset/s mentioned.)

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Top cryptocurrency prices today: Profit booking pushes prices lower, Ethereum tanks over 5% - Economic Times

While the rest of the crypto market struggled to decide its direction, the decentralised blockchain platform was knocked off its perch by Tether, the largest stablecoin in the world, on September 29.

This time around, even the slew of new partnerships announced by the platform barely two days ago, were not enough to shelter Cardano from the pressures of the global crypto market, which has settled into a slump.

"[It is an] autonomous bank that buys and sells stablecoins for a price in a range

Cardano founder, Charles Hoskinson, describes Djed in its whitepaper published in August 2021

Just like Google has the Play Store for Android Apps and Apple has the App Store, the Plutus dApp Store is where users will be able to download applications that are powered by Cardano.

And, if all this wasnt enough, the commercial and venture capital arm of the cryptocurrency, Emrugo, announced $100 million in fresh funding to further develop the Cardano ecosystem.

The higher the market cap of a particular digital asset, the more dominant it is considered to be in the global market. The more dominant it is, the more likely it is to weather the tides of time in the volatile environment that is cryptocurrencies.

The crypto market initially shrugged off Chinas proclamations as just another scare tactic. However, big wig companies did not have the same reaction.

The biggest crypto exchanges in the world, Binance and Huobi, announced they will no longer be accepting new registrations from users based out of China. Sparkpool, the second largest mining pool in the world for Ethereum, will be shutting down operations in less than 24 hours. And, Alibaba Chinas e-commerce giant announced it will no longer be selling mining equipment.

SEE ALSO:Keeping your cryptocurrency safe 12 ways to keep hackers, scammers and fraudsters at bay

Alibaba, Binance, Sparkpool and other companies are scrambling to avoid any heat from China over crypto concerns

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Cardano is no longer the worlds third largest cryptocurrency - Business Insider India

Sens. Maggie HassanMargaret (Maggie) HassanRepublican candidates tack toward right on abortion Kelly leads in all potential head-to-heads of Arizona Senate race: poll Democrats see Harris as major player in midterms MORE (D-N.H.) and Joni ErnstJoni Kay ErnstLIVE COVERAGE: Senators press military leaders on Afghanistan Hillicon Valley Presented by Ericsson Instagram 'pausing' kid-targeted plan Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill MORE (R-Iowa) introduced legislation Monday intended to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining overseas.

The bill would require the Treasury Department to compile and submit to Congress a report on how nations are using and mining cryptocurrency, along with how much cryptocurrency has been mined since 2016 within both the U.S. and countries including China.

In addition,Treasury would be required to examine the impact of cryptocurrency mining on supply chains for critical resources such as semiconductors, the global shortage of which has caused major disruptions in production for products including automobiles.

In order to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, our government must get a better handle on the role that cryptocurrency is playing in the global economy and how it is being leveraged by other countries, Hassan said in a statement Monday.

Im glad to partner across the aisle with Senator Ernst to help ensure that the Treasury Department stays on top of the use of cryptocurrency, including how it can impact our supply chains, she added.

Concerns around cryptocurrency regulation have increased on Capitol Hill in recent months, with debate over cryptocurrency-related amendments delaying the Senates $1 trillion infrastructure package in August.

Cryptocurrency markets have also come under scrutiny due to escalating ransomware attacks, with cyber criminals often using these markets to facilitate payments from victims.

Recent ransomware attacks have included those on Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA, with both companies choosing to pay the ransom in bitcoin, though the majority of the funds paid by Colonial were recovered by the Justice Department.

As a result, the federal government has taken action, with the Justice Department issuing its first sanctions against a virtual currency exchange last week due to the cryptocurrency exchange SUEX OTC allegedly facilitating ransomware attack payments.

Chinas central bank went one step further last week when it ruled all cryptocurrency transactions illegal due to security concerns and the use of cryptocurrency exchanges in criminal activities.

Hassan earlier this month sent letters to several federal agencies detailing her concerns around the use of cryptocurrency markets to facilitate criminal acts, including for ransomware attack payments.

The anonymity provided by cryptocurrency has helped facilitate its use by criminals in a myriad of ways, Hassan wrote in the letters. These uses include drug sales over the dark web, payments for ransomware attacks, tax evasion, financing for terrorism and organized crime, money laundering, and more.

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Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill | TheHill - The Hill

Europe is now the world's biggest cryptocurrency economy, with the continent receiving over 870 billion in crypto in the past year.

Countries in central, northern and western Europe (CNWE) accounted for 25 per cent of all global cryptocurrency activity, new analysis by blockchain data firm Chainalysis found.

The United Kingdom saw the largest volume of cryptocurrency trading in the CNWE region, at around 145 billion. The UK was followed by France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain.

At the same time as crypto transaction volumes in Europe began to increase in mid-2020, volumes in East Asia - the previous world cryptocurrency capital by transactions - entered a steep decline.

According to Chainalysis, Europe's growth was largely driven by so-called "whales", large institutional investors shifting enormous sums of cryptocurrency.

"CNWEs cryptocurrency economy began growing faster in July 2020. At this time, we saw a huge increase in large institutional-sized transactions, meaning transfers above $10 million (8.5 million) worth of cryptocurrency," the Chainalysis report said.

The firm's data shows how significant that growth has been. In July 2020, large institutional transfers totalled around 1.2 billion. By June 2021, that figure had ballooned to 39.6 billion, at which point the whales accounted for over half of all crypto transfer volume in the CNWE region.

The majority of large institutional transactions in Europe went to DeFi, or "decentralised finance" platforms, the report found.

DeFi platforms have been embraced by large investors as they offer ways to stake cryptocurrencies, essentially allowing long-term holders to make money from interest payments by lending their cryptocurrency to DeFi protocols.

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Europe is now the world's cryptocurrency capital as China's Bitcoin bans start to bite - Euronews

Cryptocurrency Prices Today on October 1: The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is currently $1.92 trillion, up 0.87 percent in the past 24 hours.

October 01, 2021 / 08:34 AM IST

Most major cryptocurrencies are trading in the green onOctober1. The global cryptocurrency market capitalisation is currently $1.92 trillion, up0.87 percent in the past 24 hours.

The total cryptocurrency market volume over the last 24 hours is $89.35 billion, a decline of 3.51 percent.

Bitcoin's price is currently just above Rs34 lakhand its dominance is 42.61 percent, an increase of 0.01 percent over the day. The cryptocurrency gainedas much as 5 percent on September 30.

TikTok has partnered with creators to release a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The collection will feature six "culturally significant" TikTok videos from select creators, including Lil Nas X, Rudy Willingham, Bella Poarch, Curtis Roach, Brittany Broski, FNMeka, Jess Marciante and Gary Vaynerchuk

"The NFTs will be made available on Ethereum and will be powered byImmutable X, which uses StarkWare's innovative technology to create the first carbon neutral Layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum," the company said in a statement.

US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said hedid not intend to ban cryptocurrencies, but saidstablecoinsneed greater regulatory oversight, CoinDesk reported.

Powell made the comments while speaking before the House Financial Services Committee, saying that current high levels of inflation are likely to fade next year and won't prevent the Fed from pushing toward its goal of full employment.

Wall Street ended sharply lower onSeptember 30 and the S&P 500 posted its worst month since the onset of the global health crisis, following a tumultuous month and quarter wracked by concerns over COVID-19, inflation fears and budget wrangling in Washington.

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Cryptocurrency Prices Today on October 1: Ethereum up more than 1% - Moneycontrol

The government plans to compartmentalize virtual currencies and their tax based on their use

The rapid rise of cryptocurrency in India has opened up several business and income opportunities for a number of people. Some people are interested in quickly creating wealth by directly trading in the popular, and sometimes high-yield, coins, while others are creating ways to accept them as payments at restaurants and online shops. There are also some who may have gained cryptocurrency through mining. However, there is some confusion about how the government may tax these incomes or how an individual or institution should declare them. The move by authorities to first ban and then allow trading in virtual coins has only added to the confusion.

In 2018, the Reserve Bank of India banned banks and other financial institutions from facilitating transactions in cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others. Later, in early 2020, the Supreme Court reversed the order, allowing trading of these virtual coins. Still, they have not yet received the status of a legal tender in India. The RBI has said it is working on its own cryptocurrency and will proceed with caution, keeping in mind the disruption this new form of currency may cause to the existing financial order.

Despite all that, you will have to pay taxes on these incomes. The confusion is whether to declare them as capital gains or in any other source.

The government plans to compartmentalize virtual currencies and their tax based on their use, be it investments, payments, or utility.

The government has already made it mandatory for companies dealing with virtual currencies to disclose profit or loss incurred on transactions. It also asked them to disclose the amount of cryptocurrency they hold in their balance sheets. But this has not yet brought the taxability laws to govern their transactions. Still, the income tax laws have always sought to tax income received irrespective of how it was received.

So there are primarily four scenarios of income from cryptocurrency.

1.Mining

Mined cryptocurrencies are self-generated capital assets. Subsequent sale of such bitcoins would usually give rise to capital gains.

2. Transferred in exchange for real currency

The appreciation in the value of cryptocurrency held as an investment may classify as a long-term capital gain or a short-term capital gain depending on how long the asset has been held.

3. Income from trading activity

The income from trading crypto coins would constitute income from business and hence the profit can be taxed as applicable tax slabs.

4. Received on sale of goods and services

These cryptocurrency gains can be treated on a par with receipt of money. So the recipient would be taxed under the head profits or gains from business or profession.

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Do You Need To Pay Income Tax On Gains From Cryptocurrency? - NDTV Profit