A Brooklyn-based crypto police unit has seized a scam network’s email list and used it to warn more than 1,200 potential victims.

The Virtual Currency Unit used the new technique to bring down the network whose members posed as financial advisers from “stocks-finance.com” to target the borough’s Russian community.

The scheme is estimated to have netted $1 million from victims in Brooklyn and $5 million throughout the US.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced the conclusion of the investigation yesterday which resulted in the shutdown of 70 fraudulent domains. 

“For the first time anywhere in this type of probe, Brooklyn prosecutors were able to execute warrants to seize and take control of the server, cutting off the scammers from the victims, their contact lists, and address books,” the press release claimed.

Read more: Austrian crypto scammers blew thousands on clubbing, hookers, shark tank

Gonzalez said, “Since recovering lost funds is often impossible because they’re typically quickly cashed overseas, we focus on disruption and education.” 

Two weeks ago, the same police crypto unit announced that it had shut down 40 phony NFT marketplaces after it was tipped off by an 85-year-old painter who had lost their life savings. 

The painter was scammed out of $135,000 by somebody pretending to be an art dealer who wanted to convert his art into NFTs. The scammer claimed that the victim’s NFTs had made $300,000 and that the exorbitant sum was needed to access these profits.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post US uses first-of-its-kind email seizure to disrupt $5M crypto scam appeared first on Protos.

Nayib Bukele’s tune has seemingly changed his stance on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bukele once laughed at its bankers causing a dip in bitcoin (BTC) prices, refused to consider repeated requests to revoke the crypto as legal tender, and angered IMF workers with various tweets.

He has also censored the IMF’s views within El Salvador and refused to meet its demands for debt refinancing.

However, yesterday, the president’s staff kowtowed to IMF demands, agreeing to confine his administration’s BTC-related economic activities and transactions, eliminate the acceptance of BTC tax payments, and unwind the government’s involvement with its once-state-backed BTC wallet and ATM network, Chivo.

Bukele made these compromises to get access to a paltry $1.4 billion loan extension to fund his administration’s reform agenda.

“IMF staff thank the Salvadorean authorities for the excellent collaboration and candid dialogue,” press officers wrote, juxtaposing Bukele’s defiant statements with his compliant acquiescence.

Salvadoran authorities also agreed to formalize a policy of voluntary acceptance of BTC as a method of payment for all Salvadoran business owners.

Bitcoin to no longer be accepted as legal tender for tax payments

In the end, it all comes down to dollars and cents at the negotiation table. Going forward, according to an agreement by Raphael Espinoza on behalf of Salvadoran authorities, US dollars would be the only acceptable denomination for tax payments in El Salvador.

Assuming El Salvador keeps the promises it has made to the IMF and implements these reforms by drastically dialing back BTC use in the country, the IMF Board will approve its $1.4 billion loan extension request in February next year.

Read more: Bitcoin makes IMF hesitant to issue new loans to El Salvador

The country’s GDP is approximately $34 billion and grows roughly 3% per year.

Because the country claims to own 6,192 BTC, Tim Draper claimed on October 24 that a rally to $100,000 per coin would allow the country to repay its IMF loans “and never have to talk to them again.”

That obviously didn’t happen. Like much of Bukele’s social media-posturing against the IMF, his debts came due and quickly checked him back to reality.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Nayib Bukele kills Salvadoran bitcoin initiatives to appease IMF appeared first on Protos.

Investors are suing the team behind Haliey Welch’s HAWK crypto project in a lawsuit alleging that crypto-newbies enticed by her endorsement suffered significant damages when the token crashed. 

Newsweek reports that the lawsuit filed today claims “defendants offered and sold to the public without proper registration.” This, it says, resulted in the “unlawful promotion and sale of the Hawk Tuah cryptocurrency memecoin.”  

It also states that “many of the investors were first-time cryptocurrency participants drawn to the project through Welch’s involvement,” and that after the token crashed, it caused “substantial damages to investors who relied on Welch’s participation and the project’s stated road map.” 

Read more: Haliey Welch’s HAWK token team breaks silence to shift the blame

Defendants listed in the lawsuit include the Tuah The Moon Foundation, overHere Ltd. and its exec, Clinton So, and Alex Larson Schultz, a.k.a. “Doc Hollywood.” Welch isn’t named as a defendant. 

The suit claims they “leveraged Welch’s celebrity status and connections to enhance the Token’s credibility and appeal.” It also claims “aggressive” promos and growth promises were used to create a “speculative frenzy.”

Welch hasn’t posted anything on her social media channels since launching the token. Indeed, the last thing she posted — that she was going to bed — quickly became a meme.

Despite radio silence from Welch, overHere did address the controversy, claiming that most of the blame should be placed on Schultz. It did admit, however, that it should’ve been more diligent.

The lawsuit seeks a trial by jury and over $150,000 in damages.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Haliey Welch isn’t listed in HAWK memecoin lawsuit appeared first on Protos.

Craig Wright has been given a two-year suspended prison sentence by a UK judge after he was found guilty of criminal contempt of court following accusations from the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA).

Wright was found guilty of criminal contempt of court on five separate grounds and will be arrested and imprisoned if he commits another offense in the UK. He has also been ordered to pay £144,000 ($180,000) to cover COPA’s legal costs.

Wright attended today’s hearing virtually and claimed that he would appeal the verdict. 

Today’s decision followed yesterday’s hearing where lawyers representing COPA argued that he had breached his injunctions on multiple occasions after filing a lawsuit against Jack Dorsey’s Square Up and BTC Core. 

Read more: Craig Wright skips UK court hearing, COPA wants him in prison

Wright also failed to attend yesterday’s hearing in person, despite orders from Judge Mr. Justice Mellor, potentially committing another act of contempt of court.

Mellor said today that Wright relied on “promissory estoppel,” to avoid attendance and that he found “each ground for contempt proved beyond all reasonable doubt.”

The judge concluded that, “[Wright] has expressed no remorse today,” and that “promissory estoppel is legal nonsense.” In his decision, he also struck out Wright’s new claim.

Describing the scale of Wright’s legal misdeeds, COPA’s legal representative, Jonathan Hough, claimed “Wright has found himself in contempt of court in three continents over two decades.” The hearing was again shared live by BitMEX Research, patent attorney David Pearce, and Bitnorbert. 

Read more: Craig Wright COPA appeal rejected by UK court as meritless

Earlier this year, Wright was referred to the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) over his potential perjury. At the time, the UK courts struggled to identify where he’d gone after leaving the UK.  

When the judge asked what country Wright is currently in, he replied “Asia” — a continent. Mellor then noted that Wright “can avoid the consequences by continuing to base himself in Thailand.” He added, “Wright appears to be well aware of countries without extradition arrangements.”

Hours before yesterday’s hearing, Wright claimed that he couldn’t attend as he couldn’t afford the means to travel. COPA offered to cover these costs but Wright said that it would cost £240,000, including the losses to his business.

Throughout the case, Wright has chosen to represent himself. He has previously been caught citing non-existent legal cases through his use of ChatGPT. 

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Craig Wright gets 2-year suspended sentence in COPA contempt case appeared first on Protos.

Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin has denied Justin Sun-advised BiT Global’s motion to get a temporary restraining order against Coinbase over the delisting of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). 

BiT Global’s original lawsuit alleged that Coinbase had hurt the custody provider’s reputation and engaged in monopolizing behavior to benefit Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC). BiT Global sought an order that would obligate Coinbase to relist WBTC. 

This lawsuit came after Sun launched a series of hypocritical attacks on Coinbase, claiming that the exchange must have issues that prevent it from completing a proof-of-reserves process.

Notably, Sun-owned Poloniex has not completed a proof of reserves process and operates a much larger tokenized bitcoin (BTC) product that doesn’t disclose its collateral.

Coinbase’s response pointed out that it considered it an “unacceptable risk that control of wBTC would fall into the hands of Justin Sun.” Additionally, it pointed out that BiT Global “refused to answer” questions about the ultimate ownership of BiT Global.

Read more: How involved is Justin Sun with WBTC’s new custodian BiT Global?

Elsewhere, Sun-advised HTX (formerly Huobi) recently redeemed over 7,000 WBTC that it had not disclosed on its proof-of-reserves. Strangely, HTX has 0 WBTC volume on the exchange.

Adding to the strangeness, Sun-advised and Donald Trump-endorsed World Liberty Financial has been acquiring WBTC, seeming to swap approximately 100 BTC worth of cbBTC for WBTC.

Sun’s activities in the tokenized BTC space taken as a whole seem borderline inexplicable.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post BiT Global cannot force Coinbase to relist WBTC in lawsuit yet appeared first on Protos.

An article on Justin Sun’s “ridiculous” banana-buying stunt published by CoinDesk was taken down by the crypto news outlet after Sun complained about the tone of the piece. 

Fortune reports that an objection from Sun’s team prompted an intervention from CoinDesk’s owner, crypto exchange Bullish. 

Bullish removed the December 2 opinion article titled “I Watched Justin Sun Eat the World’s Most Expensive Banana. I Don’t Get It.” A number of CoinDesk journalists subsequently attempted to get it reuploaded — while highlighting the need for editorial independence — at a meeting with Bullish CEO Tom Farley and CoinDesk CEO Sara Stratoberdha.

While the article is viewable on Yahoo, it’s currently not on the CoinDesk website. 

Read more: Justin Sun directed wash trading scheme from his US apartment, SEC claims

It was written by Callan Quinn and details his experience watching Sun eat the $6.2 million art piece. To recap, eating the banana doesn’t diminish the piece in any way. Quinn called the event “ridiculous,” and said that he couldn’t comprehend the artistic merit behind the art piece itself. 

What may have rubbed Sun the wrong way was the inclusion of last year’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charge that accused him of secondary market wash trading, fraud, and other securities law violations. Sun is fighting this case. 

In addition, Quinn touched on Sun threatening legal action against news outlets that are reporting on the use of his Tron blockchain by terrorists. Reuters reported that Tron is popular with Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbollah, and that Israel’s counter-terrorist agencies have frozen 186 Tron wallets since July 2021. 

CoinDesk editor resigned this week

Bullish bought CoinDesk last year for over $70 million and said it would operate CoinDesk as an “independent subsidiary.” It appointed the executive editor of the Washington Post, Matt Murray, as the chair of CoinDesk’s editorial committee.

However, Fortune reports that Murray resigned on Monday. He declined Fortune’s request for comment. 

The crypto exchange has a 24-hour volume of $2.5 billion and the 94 spot on CoinGecko’s top crypto exchange list. Tron was also a sponsor of CoinDesk’s Consensus event and was picked as one of CoinDesk’s most influential figures in crypto. 

For the record, Protos also thinks that Sun’s banana stunt was ridiculous and that he’s basically paid $6 million to have to replace a piece of fruit every seven to 10 days. Our newsroom is, however, completely independent, so we’ll be keeping our Sun articles up for the rest of time.

Protos has reached out to Bullish, CoinDesk, Matt Murray, and Callan Quinn for comment.  

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Justin Sun complaint leads to CoinDesk removing banana article appeared first on Protos.

One of the world’s largest asset managers momentarily delighted Bitcoiners today when it released a three-minute advertisement for bitcoin (BTC). Just 90 seconds into the video, however, delight turned to dismay when viewers spotted BlackRock’s finely printed supply disclaimer overlaid atop an otherwise glowing overview of the currency’s monetary credentials.

In the video, which was amplified by MicroStrategy Chairman Michael Saylor, BlackRock disclaimed, “There is no guarantee that bitcoin’s 21 million supply cap will not be changed.”

The disappointment at the sighting was palpable. 

Bitcoiners labeled it “misinformation,” “FUD,” “underhanded,” “laughable,” and a homophonic euphemism for retarded. The topic immediately trended on X.

Unbeknownst to most Bitcoiners, that disclaimer is also present in BlackRock’s prospectus for its spot BTC ETF. IBIT, the world’s largest spot BTC ETF, discloses various risk factors to investors in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings. One of those risks is that the supply of BTC might increase beyond 21 million.

“Although many observers believe this is unlikely at present, there is no guarantee that the current 21 million supply cap for outstanding bitcoin, which is estimated to be reached by approximately the year 2140, will not be changed. If a hard fork changing the 21 million supply cap is widely adopted, the limit on the supply of bitcoin could be lifted, which could have an adverse impact on the value of bitcoin.”

-BlackRock

It’s a remote possibility– so remote as to be “laughable” or “FUD,” according to some — yet BlackRock’s lawyers consider it pertinent to an average investor’s decision-making.

How would bitcoin’s supply exceed 21 million?

The first possibility of a supply increase is a bug. There were a few hours in Bitcoin’s nascent history, for example, when the BTC supply briefly exploded over 184 billion. Satoshi Nakamoto corrected that August 2010 bug, known as the “value overflow incident,” within hours.

Patched up and operating smoothly ever since, it’s hard to take the threat of any new bugs seriously — especially with a $2 trillion prize attached to any successful hack.

Nevertheless, although BTC’s supply has continuously remained below 21 million for more than a decade with no foreseeable inflation bugs, it’s technically possible that someone might exploit an esoteric bug in the future and briefly alter its supply.

For this reason, BlackRock must legally disclaim the 21 million supply cap of BTC. In its IBIT prospectus, BlackRock notes on page 57, “the 21 million supply cap could be changed in a hard fork.”

Read more: Did Michael Saylor pay Bitcoin developers to stop working?

If not an inflation bug, then a voluntary fork

The second possibility for breaching BTC’s 21 million supply cap is a voluntary hard fork.

BTC’s maximum supply is rigid, with zero tail emissions. One researcher estimates it at 20,999,817.31308491 or less. However, there have been various proposals to increase the quantity of circulating BTC via a voluntary fork, such as Peter Todd’s tail emissions proposal.

Tail emissions are a type of proposal that would financially incentivize miners when Bitcoin’s mining reward drops to zero in the year 2140. Although most variants of tail emissions propose recirculating provably burned or unspendable BTC into mining rewards — thereby honoring the 21 million cap — some variants of tail emissions propose lifting the supply cap slightly in order to incentivize miners to secure the network beyond 2140 if transaction fees do not sufficiently subsidize miners’ electricity, machinery, and effort.

However, there are vanishingly few Bitcoiners who currently support any version of tail emissions that exceed BTC’s current supply cap.

There will never be more than 21 million bitcoin.*

Operators of nodes around the world enforce the current version of Bitcoin’s mining rules. Anyone who tries to validate a block or transaction that doesn’t comply with BTC’s 21 million supply cap will be rejected by the vast majority of these nodes.

With over 15 years of consistent enforcement of this supply cap, there are very few people who think BTC’s supply limit will ever change.

There are at least 67,000 nodes around the world that enforce BTC’s 21 million supply cap, and about 19,000 are online and reachable at any given moment. All of them stand guard to defend against any breach of this ceiling.

*From the perspective of a BlackRock lawyer, however, they would still prefer to note the risk — even if it is in fine print.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Bitcoin supply may not be fixed at 21M, says BlackRock appeared first on Protos.

Coinbase has filed its response to BiT Global’s lawsuit over the delisting of Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC). 

Justin Sun-advised BiT Global’s original lawsuit centered around Coinbase’s decision to delist WBTC. The custody provider alleged that this was an unfair assault on its reputation that could potentially lead to it losing “more than $1 billion in its market valuation.”

It additionally alleges that Coinbase was attempting to monopolize the tokenized bitcoin (BTC) space to favor its own product, Coinbase Wrapped Bitcoin (cbBTC).

BiT Global is seeking an order that would obligate Coinbase to relist WBTC.

Read more: Justin Sun-advised HTX has redeemed 7,300 WBTC it did not disclose

In its response to the lawsuit, Coinbase took aim at Sun. It pointed out that the decision to delist WBTC was centered around a belief that there was an “unacceptable risk that control of wBTC would fall into the hands of Justin Sun.” 

Coinbase’s filing also noted that BiT Global “refused to answer” questions “about who ultimately owned and controlled BiT.”

Furthermore, the exchange noted that it makes up “less than 1% of transactions involving wBTC,” suggesting BiT may have been exaggerating the potential harm to its business from this delisting.

Read more: Justin Sun has 99 problems and WBTC is two of them 

The filing also challenges the reputational harms suggested by BiT Global, pointing out that “long before Coinbase took any action,” the market already started to react to the change in WBTC. According to Coinbase, this means “any diminished trust in wBTC was caused by its association with Mr. Sun — not by Coinbase.”

Exhibits attached to the filings and declarations also directly asked BiT Global about Sun’s other tokenized BTC project, which is offered by Poloniex and for which he refuses to confirm collateral. 

BiT wasn’t able to verify the collateral of this other product.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Coinbase takes aim at Justin Sun in WBTC lawsuit response appeared first on Protos.

Craig Wright said he won’t be attending his contempt of court hearing in London today, citing a “lack of means for travel.” As a result, he will likely be found in contempt and face possible arrest and prison.

There was much speculation about whether Wright would show up at the London Royal Courts of Justice to face the hearing brought by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA). Last November, Mr. Justice Mellor ordered Wright to attend in person after deciding his arguments against attending carried “no justification.”

He said, “It is difficult to avoid the conclusion invited by COPA which was that his real motivation is a wish to avoid the consequences of his contempt (if proved).”  

Read more: COPA says Craig Wright used ChatGPT to write court submissions

Wright tried to argue that his autism and Christmas plans, among other things, should prevent him from attending.

COPA argues that Wright has breached his court injunctions after he filed a lawsuit against Jack Dorsey’s Square Up and BTC Core claiming £900 billion in damages.

Today’s High Court hearing was recorded by BitMEX Research, Bitnorbert, and patent attorney David Pearce. COPA reportedly offered to cover the costs of Wright’s travel. However, Wright, who now also dabbles in casino design, rejected the offer, reportedly asking for as much as £240,000.

According to Wright, this sum reflected the loss of business opportunities due to “COPA’s actions.”

COPA’s legal representative, Jonathan Hough, instructed by Bird & Bird, claimed, “Wright is voluntarily absenting himself to avoid consequences.” Hough later recommended that Wright should receive a custodial sentence of two years.

Judge Mellor has told COPA to invite Wright to a sentencing hearing tomorrow, which he can attend remotely, where a judgment will be handed down.

Update December 18, 12:49 UTC: Included Judge Mellor’s decision to hand down a judgment on Thursday.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post Craig Wright skips UK court hearing, COPA wants him in prison appeared first on Protos.

Many crypto investors are accustomed to collateralized lending such as margin in a brokerage account, perpetual futures, DeFi loans, yield farms, and other secured loans. In trust-minimized ecosystems like crypto, borrowers must give lenders some type of assurance that they will repay and almost always, that assurance takes the form of collateral.

A collateralized loan usually has a liquidation price, a threshold that allows the lender to sell the collateral on an emergency basis to repay the borrower’s obligation before asset prices collapse further.

Using this mindset, investors see MicroStrategy’s $7.2 billion in debt and 439,000 bitcoin (BTC) in available collateral and automatically assume that the company must have some sort of liquidation threshold on its debts.

Their suspicion has historical precedent. Indeed, MicroStrategy almost hit some of its liquidation triggers just two years ago — shortly after the collapse of FTX in November 2022.

At that time, MicroStrategy had outstanding debts to lenders secured by some of its BTC holdings. Fortunately, the price of BTC stopped its crash above $15,000 and never cascaded into the single digits that would have triggered liquidations.

Calculating the BTC price that would liquidate MicroStrategy

Fast forward to today, MicroStrategy currently has $46 billion in BTC yet has $7.2 billion in debt. It bought its 439,000 BTC at an average price of $61,725.

The question in the minds of many investors is simple: If BTC falls below $61,725, will progressively lower prices trigger a series of liquidations of MicroStrategy’s bitcoin?

At today’s market prices above $100,000 per BTC, MicroStrategy obviously has no liquidations to worry about. If the company were to sell just 15% of its BTC at today’s prices, it could easily pay off all of its outstanding debt.

However, with Bitcoin enthusiast Michael Saylor pulling the strings as executive chairman and a consistent decline at its legacy software business, it has no plans to sell any coins.

If not $16,500, then what?

Stonewalled with a rigid buy-and-hold corporate approach to BTC, MicroStrategy seemingly has the risk that its assets could be liquidated. For example, CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju used elementary math to allegedly estimate MicroStrategy’s liquidation price as $16,500 per BTC.

However, that is as simplistic as it is incorrect. In truth, MicroStrategy doesn’t have any liquidation price.

Unlike at other times in MicroStrategy’s history, all of the company’s debt is now unsecured. Its creditors don’t hold any BTC as collateral and they have no power to force Saylor to sell any of it.

Lenders have simply accepted MicroStrategy’s promise to repay and most have accepted two types of principal repayment upon maturity: cash or MSTR shares.

Moreover, they have agreed to multiple years of debt term, delaying principal repayment for many years provided that MicroStrategy services the loans with small, quarterly interest payments.

So far, Saylor has been able to raise plenty of this type of debt at increasingly favorable interest rates — all the way to 0% on one of its recent rounds.

Using the proceeds of these debt offerings to buy BTC has so far been an excellent choice. With the currency trading near all-time highs, MicroStrategy’s outperformance recently earned the NASDAQ 100’s blessing as a new index constituent.

Read more: What is the next MicroStrategy catalyst after NASDAQ 100?

Obviously, a BTC collapse could cause panic among shareholders or lenders and force MicroStrategy to negotiate. However, there’s no particular price at which MicroStrategy must liquidate BTC.

It has approximately $7 billion of outstanding debt that matures in increments of a few hundred million dollars approximately once per year for the next decade. In the meantime, it only needs to make nominal interest payments and have sufficient cash upon principal maturity if a lender chooses to not elect conversion into MSTR shares.

Got a tip? Send us an email or ProtonMail. For more informed news, follow us on X, Instagram, Bluesky, and Google News, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

The post What is MicroStrategy’s bitcoin liquidation price? appeared first on Protos.