{"id":12890,"date":"2019-04-25T19:31:45","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T19:31:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/?p=12890"},"modified":"2019-04-26T16:15:53","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T16:15:53","slug":"news-quadriga-ponzis-exchange-volumes-no-institutional-investors-petro-on-sale-and-the-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/04\/25\/news-quadriga-ponzis-exchange-volumes-no-institutional-investors-petro-on-sale-and-the-football\/","title":{"rendered":"News: Quadriga Ponzis, NY AG sues Bitfinex, no &#8220;institutional&#8221; investors, Petro on sale, and the football"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Don\u2019t forget \u2014 this news blog runs on your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/davidgerard\/overview\">helpful subscriptions.<\/a> If you\u2019d buy me a pint about once a month for my work \u2014 that\u2019s about $5 right there. Tell your friends and colleagues, and <a href=\"#byemail\">sign up for new posts via email!<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Quadriga latest \u2014 I can&#8217;t tell you how <em>shocked<\/em> I am to hear that starry-eyed libertarian Bitcoin idealist Gerald Cotten \u2014 &#8220;<span class=\"gnca-article-story-txt gn-speakable-description\">a really, really genuine guy that was super smart,&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/5184346\/quadrigacx-friend-cryptocurrency-mystery\/\">apparently<\/a><\/span> \u2014 was <a href=\"https:\/\/amycastor.com\/2019\/04\/23\/talkgold-the-ponzi-forum-where-quadrigas-patryn-and-cotten-first-met\/\">running Ponzi schemes since he was 15 years old.<\/a> In cooperation with Michael Patryn, then still called Omar Dhanani. So many Bitcoin scammers turn out to be <em>serial<\/em> scammers.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m even more shocked to hear that the Bitcoin price spike on 2 April could have been <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@drellie\/true-liquidity-and-price-discovery-in-crypto-space-b169b25e3e97\"><em>manipulation<\/em>,<\/a> let alone manipulation linked to\u00a0<em>Bitfinex,<\/em> of all the upright and trustworthy exchanges!<\/p>\n<p><strong>UPDATE: <\/strong>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/bitfinex-used-tether-reserves-to-mask-missing-850-million-probe-finds-11556227031\">Wall Street Journal<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/2019\/04\/25\/ny-attorney-general-sues-bitfinex-and-tether\/\">The Block<\/a> posted, two hours after I posted this newsletter \u2014 the New York Attorney General is suing Bitfinex. <a href=\"https:\/\/iapps.courts.state.ny.us\/fbem\/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=vIexA1b0spKOnK_PLUS_ZUGTJ3A==&amp;system=prod\">Here&#8217;s the document<\/a> (PDF). Also, there&#8217;s an $850 million hole in the Tether reserves \u2014 Bitfinex may have taken money from the reserves to \u201ccover up $850 million that went missing,\u201d \u201cAccording to documents provided to OAG by Respondents, by 2018, Bitfinex had paced over one billion dollars of co-mingled customer and corporate funds with Crypto Capital.\u201d Bitcoin&#8217;s price dropped $200 as I type this, 22:03 UTC 25 April.<\/p>\n<p>The Coinbase crypto exchange discovers the &#8220;institutional investors&#8221; in crypto were imaginary after all \u2014 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblockcrypto.com\/2019\/04\/23\/coinbase-is-pulling-the-plug-on-a-massive-project-to-upgrade-its-platform-and-it-could-result-in-a-multi-million-dollar-loss\/\">pulls the plug on its Chicago project<\/a> to put together &#8220;a matching engine built for Wall Street.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>New report from CryptoCompare \u2014 crypto exchange <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cryptocompare.com\/media\/35650390\/cryptocompare_exchange_review_2019_03.pdf\">volumes went up 30%<\/a> from February to March 2019! The report doesn&#8217;t mention that this is based on the exchange volume data that&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2019-03-25\/crypto-aggregator-says-concerns-over-inaccurate-data-are-valid\">95% fake.<\/a> Whatever, it&#8217;s probably <em>good<\/em> news for Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>FinCEN <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/news\/news-releases\/fincen-penalizes-peer-peer-virtual-currency-exchanger-violations-anti-money\">penalizes<\/a> a peer-to-peer crypto exchanger, Eric Powers, for violations of Anti-Money Laundering laws. \u201cObligations under the BSA apply to money transmitters regardless of their size.\u201d Here&#8217;s the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fincen.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/enforcement_action\/2019-04-18\/Assessment%20Eric%20Powers%20Final%20for%20Posting%2004.18.19_1.pdf\">consent order<\/a> (PDF) \u2014 &#8220;Mr. Powers admits to the facts set forth below and that his conduct violated the BSA.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>You can now <a href=\"https:\/\/decryptmedia.com\/6593\/venezuela-trading-petro\">buy Venezuelan Petros!<\/a> Either <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sunacrip.gob.ve\/\">directly from the government,<\/a> or at a single local exchange. It&#8217;s currently trading at around USD$30, well below its supposed peg.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s routine whenever crypto is stolen for advocates to blame the victims. It&#8217;s a little hard not to, though, when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/blockchain-bandit-ethereum-weak-private-keys\/\">their Ethereum private key is literally the number 1.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Remember that BBC piece on CarlaurenCoin, the <a href=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/2019\/04\/05\/news-sec-on-ico-tokens-theyre-probably-securities-vanbex-fraud-regulating-crypto-mining-crypto-for-care-homes\/\">cryptocurrency for elderly care homes?<\/a> Carlauren Group just tried to gag a blog, <a href=\"https:\/\/bondreview.co.uk\/\">Bond Review,<\/a> that&#8217;s critical of them, by copying its content \u2014 then <a href=\"https:\/\/bondreview.co.uk\/2019\/04\/19\/carlauren-group-steals-our-content-and-launches-fake-dmca-takedown\/\">asking Google to remove the originals<\/a> as copyright violations. Here are the originals:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bondreview.co.uk\/2018\/04\/18\/the-care-home-group-unregulated-investment-in-care-home-rooms-offering-10-per-annum\/\">The Care Home Group \u2014 unregulated investment in care home rooms offering 10% per annum<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/H22hj\">archive<\/a>);<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bondreview.co.uk\/2019\/02\/14\/carlauren-group-aka-the-care-home-group-enters-cryptocurrency-market-with-c-coin\/\">Carlauren Group (aka The Care Home Group) enters cryptocurrency market with C-Coin<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/i9DOi\">archive<\/a>);<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/bondreview.co.uk\/2019\/04\/10\/carlauren-group-claims-its-c-coin-cryptos-will-instantly-jump-in-value-by-170-as-soon-as-people-buy-35-million-worth\/#\">Carlauren Group claims its C-Coin cryptos will instantly jump in value by 170% \u2013 as soon as people buy \u00a335 million worth<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/Fprvy\">archive<\/a>).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/decryptmedia.com\/6643\/confessions-of-a-white-paper-writer\">Confessions of a White Paper writer.<\/a> &#8220;The last I looked our coin had joined the Triple Egg club, trading at something like $0.0009.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Tron: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/justinsuntron\/status\/1120927231587393536\">HUGE PARTNERSHIP<\/a> with LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB!!&#8221;<br \/>\nLiverpool FC: <a href=\"https:\/\/decryptmedia.com\/6684\/tron-liverpool-football-club-fc\">&#8220;What is a Tron?&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nKraken crypto exchange: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jespow\/status\/1121064881958952975\">&#8220;I think we all got spammed with the same sales pitch. I get 100 of these a day.&#8221;<\/a><br \/>\nLiverpool: &#8220;Oh yeah, that was us, sorry. Not a partnership, though.&#8221;<br \/>\nTron: &#8220;TOTALLY A HUGE PARTNERSHIP, IF YOU REALLY THINK ABOUT IT!!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In further sports coverage, I got an &#8220;additional reporting&#8221; credit &#8216;cos I sent Ben at Decrypt lots of painted nipples for his story about <a href=\"https:\/\/decryptmedia.com\/6709\/bitcoin-sv-coingeek-ayr-football\">Calvin Ayre being a tit again<\/a> \u2014 not one to view on the large monitor at work, it&#8217;s a shockingly racy piece for such an august financial publication.<\/p>\n<p>You can tell it&#8217;s a crypto bear market by how hyperbolic the Coindesk <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.is\/djUOa\">headlines<\/a> are: &#8220;You Can Now Shop With Bitcoin on Amazon Using Lightning&#8221; \u2014 wow!! The text is rather less exciting:\u00a0 &#8220;Amazon itself never touches bitcoin&#8221; \u2014 and Moon, the company adding three middlemen to the process of getting dollars from you to Amazon,\u00a0 admits that &#8220;there\u2019s no direct merchant integration&#8221; and &#8220;declined to specify which traditional financial institutions are helping convert the bitcoin to fiat on the backend.&#8221; I wonder if all the traditional institutions in question actually know they&#8217;re involved.<\/p>\n<p>Tim Cotten: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blog.cotten.io\/russias-bitcoin-hacking-funds-c0a87b33f1e2\">This article<\/a> explores the reconstructed blockchain history of Russian hackers whose Bitcoin addresses were referenced indirectly in two separate indictments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a blockchain conference in Toronto this week. <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/kelly-cutrara\/blockchain-crash-course\">I spoke to Kelly Cutrara<\/a> at Global News Radio 640 Toronto yesterday, and tried to explain in a few minutes what a blockchain was.<\/p>\n<p>My piece talking to Kelly <a href=\"https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/kelly-cutrara\/cryptocurrency-exchange-ceo-dies-with-all-the-pass\">about Quadriga in February<\/a> is up now as well.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Witches regularly cast curses without thoroughly documenting the conditions for lifting them, as such generations might (unwittingly) suffer under a curse originally intended for just a one person. With that in mind I present CurseChain ($CURSE), audited curses on the blockchain<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Sarah Jamie Lewis (@SarahJamieLewis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SarahJamieLewis\/status\/1119653346120323072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 20, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<br><br><div align=\"center\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\"><img src=\"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/become_a_patron_button.svg\" alt=\"Become a Patron!\" title=\"Become a Patron!\" width=217 height=51><\/a><br><p style=\"align:center;\" class=\"patreon-badge\"><i>Your subscriptions keep this site going. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/bePatron?u=8420236\">Sign up today!<\/a><\/i><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The last I looked our coin had joined the Triple Egg club, trading at something like $0.0009.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[103,1258,21,1146,38,1253,1222,288,98,1251,1252,82,876,1141,1256,6,1257,1164,1254,421,938,39,1255,744,296],"class_list":["post-12890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-amazon","tag-ayr-united","tag-bitcoin","tag-bitcoin-sv","tag-bitfinex","tag-bond-review","tag-carlauren","tag-coinbase","tag-coindesk","tag-cryptocompare","tag-eric-powers","tag-ethereum","tag-fincen","tag-gerald-cotten","tag-kelly-cutrara","tag-links","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-michael-patryn","tag-moon","tag-petro","tag-quadrigacx","tag-tether","tag-tim-cotten","tag-tron","tag-venezuela"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12890"}],"version-history":[{"count":28,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12933,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12890\/revisions\/12933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidgerard.co.uk\/blockchain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}