Coin Bureau Insider

2022-08-25 19:19:32 Hey Guys,

In case you haven't noticed, countries have been rushing to roll out their central bank digital currencies or CBDCs.

Although they say it's because they want to address things like 'financial inclusion', the European Central Bank or ECB recently said the quiet part out loud.

Central banks are rolling out CBDCs to ensure the continuation of the existing financial system in the face of growing inflation and growing distrust in national currencies. This was explicitly noted in the ECB's recent working paper about CBDCs.

As you might have guessed, today's video is about that paper, and it's safe to say that it's one of the craziest CBDC papers I've summarized so far. It reaffirms the stuff I've summarized from other papers, and confirms some of my worst fears about CBDCs.

Enjoy, if you can... Open / Comment

2022-08-25 13:00:42 The company tweeted,

"Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH (cbETH) is a utility token that represents ETH2, which is ETH staked through Coinbase. cbETH can be sold or sent off-platform, while ETH2 will remain locked-up until a future protocol upgrade."

https://cointelegraph.com/news/coinbase-introduces-wrapped-staked-eth-asset-ahead-of-the-merge Open / Comment

2022-08-25 13:00:41 COIN BUREAU NEWSFLASH! – (25/08/22)
Here are some of today’s most important headlines:

More Than $100M Worth of NFTs stolen Since 2021: Elliptic Report

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic has released a new report which sheds light on non-fungible token (NFT) theft, scams and other illegal activity between July 2021 and July 2022.

According to the report, roughly $100.6 million worth of NFTs were stolen during that time period. Out of which, $24 million in NFTs were stolen through scams in May 2022 alone, with July 2022 being the highest month on record for the number of NFTs stolen at 4,600. The report also states that individuals had laundered more than $8 million in illicit funds through NFT platforms since 2017.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/more-than-100m-worth-of-nfts-stolen-since-2021-elliptic

Tether States It Will Not Freeze Sanctioned Tornado Cash Addresses

In a statement released by Tether on Wednesday, the company reiterated its decision not to bar Tornado Cash addresses, highlighting that it has not yet received any instruction from U.S. authorities or law enforcement to do so. The company described the ‘unilateral freezing of secondary market addresses’ without specific instructions as a highly disruptive and reckless move that it does not wish to undertake.

The statement read,

“Even if Tether recognises suspicious activities on such an address, completing a freeze without the verified instruction of law enforcement and other government agencies might interfere with ongoing and sophisticated law enforcement investigations,"

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/stock-market-news-today-08-24-2022/card/tether-hasn-t-blocked-accounts-associated-with-sanctioned-crypto-mixer-ypuVNTJdtlVbDPonvvLS

Mars Signs Licensing Deal with Universal Music Group Label to Release NFT-Inspired Candy

According to an announcement, the candy brand Mars has signed a licensing deal with the label 10:22PM of Universal Music Group (UMG) to produce limited-edition M&Ms based on Kingship, a virtual band made up of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club avatars.

Mars Wrigley Global Vice President Jane Hwang, stated,

"Consumers' expectations for what they want from their favourite brands [have] shifted, and at Mars, we know we need to be more innovative than ever with such a culturally famous brand like M&M's."

As part of the deal, Mars will release just 10,000 total packages of the branded M&M’s chocolate candies, which will feature images of the Bored Apes and Kingship iconography on them.

https://decrypt.co/108142/bored-apes-melt-in-your-mouth-mms-mars-nft-candy

China’s Ant Group Partners with Malaysian Investment Bank Kenanga to Launch ‘SuperApp’

Kenanga Investment Bank Berhad, one of the largest private investment banks in Malaysia, has partnered with China’s tech giant Ant Group to launch a wealth management “SuperApp”.

The "SuperApp" will offer a variety of financial services, including cryptocurrency trading, foreign exchange, digital investment management, and stock trading. According to the terms of the deal, mPaaS, a mobile development platform originating from AliPay App, would be made available to Kenanga by Ant's digital technology division.

Datuk Chay Wai Leong, group managing director at Kenanga, stated,

“With almost 50 years of retail experience serving over half a million customers, we believe the Kenanga Wealth SuperApp will leapfrog our growth to the next level,”

https://www.theblock.co/post/165456/chinas-ant-group-partners-with-malaysian-investment-bank-kenanga-to-launch-superapp

Coinbase Introduces ‘cbETH’ Wrapped Staked ETH Asset Ahead of The Merge

Coinbase is reportedly launching its own liquid staking token, called cbETH, which allows users to use their staked Ether (ETH) while earning rewards on the exchange. The tokens are expected to be available for trading on Aug. 25 “if liquidity conditions are met.” Each cbETH token will represent a claim on the staked ETH as well as the interest accrued until the time of redemption. Open / Comment

2022-08-24 12:51:21 Mural, a startup building decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO) treasury tools for brands, has raised over $5.6 million in a seed funding round at an undisclosed valuation. Mural is founded by alumni of publicly traded data analytics software company Palantir Technologies.

While the lead investor is undisclosed, the round saw participation from Galaxy Ventures, Firstminute Capital, AlleyCorp, Palumni, 186 Ventures, Digital Currency Group and others.

In an interview with CoinDesk, Mural’s Chief Product Officer Kevin Alvarez Fung stated,

“We’re now seeing a new wave of DAOs being spun up by many of the world’s leading brands. They see the value of DAOs just like they saw the value of e-commerce in the early 2000s, as a mechanism to better digitally engage their customers.”

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/08/23/blockchain-company-mural-founded-by-palantir-alums-raises-56m/ Open / Comment

2022-08-24 12:51:20 COIN BUREAU NEWSFLASH! – (24/08/22)
Here are some of today’s most important headlines:

Celsius Countersues Former Money Manager KeyFi, Accuses Them Of Deceit And Theft

On Tuesday, troubled crypto lending platform Celsius filed a countersuit in United States Bankruptcy Court against former money manager Keyfi Inc. and founder Jason Stone.

The lawsuit accuses the firm of mismanagement and fraud and alleges that KeyFi and founder Jason Stone stole assets worth millions of dollars from Celsius wallets by transferring them to wallets controlled by the defendants. It also states that these assets have since been laundered using sanctioned privacy tool Tornado Cash.

The lawsuit comes six weeks after Stone sued Celsius, accusing the firm of mismanagement and fraud. In an emailed statement to Bloomberg, Kyle Roche, an attorney for Stone, stated,

“As alleged by KeyFi in the complaint it filed last month, the compensation that KeyFi received (including in the form of NFTs) was expressly authorised by Celsius’s CEO Alexander Mashinsky. Celsius’s most recent filing is an attempt to rewrite history and use KeyFi and Mr. Stone as a scapegoat for their organisational incompetence.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-23/crypto-lender-celsius-accuses-money-manager-of-theft-deceit

DOJ Charges Miami-Based Trio with Defrauding Banks, Crypto Exchange In $4 Million Scam

According to a press release by the Department of Justice, three people residing in Miami have been arrested for their involvement in a plot to defraud banks and a cryptocurrency exchange for more than $4 million.

The plot involved using stolen identities to open accounts at a crypto exchange and then linking those accounts to several bank accounts which were funded by the defendants. The defendants then purchased crypto on those accounts for nearly $4 million, which was then moved to an external wallet. Once this step was executed, the defendants then filed false reports claiming the crypto purchases were unauthorised, prompting the bank to reverse those transactions, effectively reimbursing the defendants.

The defendants have now been charged with a variety of offences including wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/miami-trio-duped-banks-crypto-exchange-in-4-million-scam-11661287138

Rep. Emmer Demands an Explanation of OFAC’s Tornado Cash Sanction from Sec. Yellen

On Tuesday, US Congressman Tom Emmer wrote a four-page letter containing a series of questions posed to Janet Yellen, the secretary of the Treasury, that sought clarification on the recent sanctions imposed on crypto privacy tool Tornado Cash and its "divergence from previous OFAC precedent."

The letter also pointed out a distinction made by the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on anonymising services and anonymising software. One of the questions posed by Emmer in the letter, is as follows,

“Given that the Tornado Cash back-end will operate unchanged […] as long as the Ethereum network continues to operate, who or what entity did OFAC believe was reasonably responsible for imposing controls on the Tornado Cash blockchain contracts?”

https://cointelegraph.com/news/rep-emmer-demands-an-explanation-of-ofac-s-tornado-cash-sanction-from-sec-yellen

NFT Exchange SudoRare Suffers $800,000 ‘Rug Pull’ Six Hours After Launch

SudoRare, a decentralised NFT exchange and fork of popular NFT exchanges LooksRare and SudoSwap, has gone offline and disappeared with tokens worth $800,000 in what seems to be an apparent ‘rug pull’ scam. The rug pull occurred just six hours after the platform launched.

Data from blockchain investigation firm PeckShield shows that the funds have already been sent to three different wallets, one of which has been identified as belonging to a user of crypto exchange Kraken.

https://www.theblock.co/post/164970/nft-exchange-sudorare-suffers-800000-rug-pull-six-hours-after-launch

DAO Tooling Startup Mural, Founded by Palantir Alums, Raises $5.6M in Seed Round Open / Comment

2022-05-22 22:31:35 Glad to see that you guys are finding that video useful!

I wanted to quickly share a few thoughts about some altcoins - especially given that we are in a crypto bear market.

Earlier today, I retweeted this:

https://twitter.com/AlgodTrading/status/1528082340412641281

It's a very good point that I don't think too many people take into account when they are doing their analysis.

The FDV or Fully Diluted Value (Fully Diluted Market Cap on CMC) is the market cap that accounts for all tokens including those that have not been released yet. Those that could be part of mining rewards or in a vesting schedule.

While you may think that a project has a "low" market cap compared to its peers, it's the FDV that you also need to consider. This is especially the case for those projects that still have a lot of the supply locked up in private / seed sale vesting contracts.

Not only that, but you also need to appreciate the fact that if this is a long and drawn-out bear market, those tokens are likely to unlock within that period. People who had invested in these projects prior to the bear market are likely to be extra keen to liquidate their holdings.

This is another reason why you should be extra careful when picking up alts that you think are really "cheap". Supply unlocks of any type are going to impact on price especially if they lead to selling.

Of course, some of these vesting schedules could be well structured so to avoid large unlock cliffs. That's why you may also want to look at the vesting schedule for any of these projects. These will most likely be in their docs, whitepaper or on third party research portals like Messari and Binance research.

So, it's worth keeping that in mind Open / Comment

2022-05-22 17:31:31

Open / Comment

2022-05-22 17:31:19 Hey Folks!

Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day!!

12 years ago today, someone spent 10,000 Bitcoin to buy 2 pizzas. Apart from the fact that these pizzas would have been akin to $300m spent today, it was a major milestone for Bitcoin. It showed that this peer-to-peer digital cash could indeed be used for transactional purposes.

So, I hope you are enjoying a pizza to celebrate this highly significant day in Bitcoin's history.

Speaking of food...

There is something that has been concerning me of late, and that is this global food crisis that seems to be brewing.

Up until a few months ago, the notion that we could be hurtling to shortages at our local supermarkets was unheard of. Indeed, the past 20 years have conditioned us to believe that we are living through an era of abundance.

Yet, all you need is a perfect storm of unfortunate events to come together at once - and those feelings of food security fall completely by the wayside.

In my video today, I am going to give you everything that you need to know about this impending crisis. One that the UN has said could be the worst food crisis since the end of World War 2.

I will explain exactly how it came to be and where the shortages are most likely to be felt. I also have a few hints and tips that could help to hold us over during this tumultuous time.

So, while enjoying that pizza, sit back and enjoy this video - it will make you savour it even more! Open / Comment

2022-05-22 12:00:14 COIN BUREAU NEWSFLASH! – (22/05/22)
Here are some of today’s most important headlines:

Do Kwon Denies Tax Liabilities In Korea

Do Kwon took to Twitter to state that Terraform Labs (TFL) has no outstanding tax liability in Korea. The statement comes in response to recent press reports claiming that Korean authorities were investigating Kwon and Terraform Labs for unpaid corporate taxes of $78 million.

Kwon stated,

“We have no outstanding tax liabilities in Korea. The NTS did conduct a tax audit across all the major crypto companies with a presence in Korea and applied the Korean tax code to foreign mother companies, and every company ended up paying as a result - we paid in full.”

“Happy to engage with any lawsuit or regulatory inquiry to the best of our ability - we have nothing to hide.”

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/148177/terraform-labs-has-no-tax-liabilities-in-korea-do-kwon-says/

ECB’s Lagarde Says Crypto Has No Worth And Must Be Regulated.

European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde states cryptocurrencies are "based on nothing" and should be regulated to keep individuals from betting their life savings on them. She adds that while cryptocurrencies might not have inherent value, the digital euro is different and that she guarantees it.

Lagarde stated,

“The day when we have the central bank digital currency out, any digital euro, I will guarantee -- so the central bank will behind it and I think it’s vastly different than many of those things,”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-21/lagarde-says-crypto-is-worth-nothing-and-should-be-regulated

Brazilian Crypto Exchange Refunds All UST Holders 1:1

Nox Bitcoin, a Brazilian crypto exchange, has announced that it will spend 620,000 Brazilian reais to compensate UST holders who have been holding the UST token since before the de-pegging incident. The exchange will credit the difference in value between the current price of their UST holding and its $1 peg.

While many see this move as a sign of altruism and trust-building, FatMan (an anonymous Terra analyst and commentator) believes the announcement to be motivated by regulatory concerns. He stated,

“Brazil’s consumer law is quite strong and punishes businesses that lie to customers or falsely represent risks. Let’s see how many countries’ courts come to the same conclusion over the next few days as suits against exchanges roll in. All of this is far from over.”

https://cryptoslate.com/brazilian-crypto-exchange-refunds-all-ust-holders-11/

Financial regulator cautions UK against rushing to create ‘crypto hub’

In a speech on Friday, Financial Conduct Authority Chair- Charles Randell warned against bringing crypto markets into his agency's jurisdiction too quickly. The warning was made in response to the UK government's desire to turn the country into a crypto powerhouse.

Randell asked for "realism" in terms of how long it will take the regulator to prepare to supervise issuers and traders of "purely speculative crypto tokens," and how much crypto businesses must improve before they can be legally authorised.

He also stated that he was unsure of how the regulator would pay for the costs involved in adding digital assets to its responsibilities.

https://www.ft.com/content/69965f02-bfd0-45a4-b5de-b962884ab99e Open / Comment

2022-05-21 18:45:20 Hope you are enjoying that video!

Just thought I would update you on some portfolio moves...

As we are quite clearly in a bear market, it's worth appreciating that blue chip large market cap assets such as BTC & ETH appear to be holding up better than many of the other altcoins.

Bitcoin dominance appears to be rising while ETH has remained flat. That while most major altcoins have seen their dominance fall.

It also seems that in this recent fall, institutions have been moving back into Bitcoin structured products and funds:

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/05/16/crypto-funds-saw-years-highest-inflows-as-terra-crisis-crashed-markets/

When it comes to ETH, it seems as if August is the most likely timeline for the Merge date and developers are appear keen to push for it.

https://twitter.com/coinbureau/status/1527581730508619776

While I will caution against anyone "buying the dip" (as it could dip lower), it could be an opportunity to slowly DCA into the market. And, if you are going to be doing that, consider those coins that are more likely to maintain their market dominance (Bitcoin / Ethereum).

As such, I have decided to make some adjustments to my portfolio where I will move about 10% of all other altcoins into BTC & ETH in a 50/50 split.

Of course, there will be strategic opportunities to pick up altcoins in the next few weeks, but currently, I think portfolios should be top heavy in BTC & ETH.

I will be updating you with my portfolio position in my newsletter tomorrow. Open / Comment