KPMG Canada partner Kunal Bhasin says rising debt and increasing inflation have likely attracted institutional investors into crypto.
Canada-based institutional investors significantly increased their crypto exposure last year compared to the last bull run, a survey from accounting firm KPMG has revealed.Nearly 40% of institutional investors reported having direct or indirect exposure to crypto assets in 2023 — up from 31% in KPMG’s 2021 study, the company according to an April 24 report. KPMG received 65 responses, 31 of which identified as institutional investors with most managing more than $500 million in assets, while the remaining 34 were financial services organizations. Read more
On April 20, the day of the Bitcoin halving, total transaction fees paid to miners jumped to 1,257.71 BTC, the highest since December 2017. The high amounts starkly contrasted with fees from the previous day, which amounted to only 116.94 BTC. When viewed alongside the decreased block rewards post-halving, this surge in transaction fees led […]
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Binance‘s co-founder and former CEO, Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao, submitted a letter of apology to the court on April 24. Zhao, who pleaded guilty to criminal charges earlier this year, expressed regret in advance of his upcoming sentencing date. He wrote: “I apologize for my poor decisions and accept full responsibility.” CZ said he recognizes that […]
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Meta shares dipped after a disappointing Q2 revenue outlook and plans to spend nearly $100 billion this year as it aims to “invest aggressively” in its AI products.
Meta (META) shares dropped 15% in after-hours trading after the firm said it will “aggressively” ramp up spending in artificial intelligence spending while its metaverse division will continue to run at a loss — amid a weak revenue outlook. The giant said in its April 24 first quarter 2024 results it expected expenses to rise to a range between $96 billion to $99 billion — up from $94 billion to $99 billion due to “higher infrastructure and legal costs.”It also bumped full-year 2024 capital expenditures to a top end of $40 billion from its prior $37 billion as it would “invest aggressively to support our ambitious AI research and product development.”Read more
The European Central Bank is too busy attacking Bitcoin to worry about the myriad of real scams perpetrated by con artists in the industry.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in jail. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak just won an appeal against YouTube and the use of his likeness in promoting cryptocurrency scams on the site. Crypto scammers (or the platforms they use) are increasingly getting caught and held accountable for their actions. Cryptocurrency is mainstream, meaning mainstream attention to coins, tokens, or platforms that seem “too good to be true” is met with widespread awareness that they are, indeed, too good to be true.Unfortunately, as cryptocurrency regains popularity, more scams will appear. And one popular regulatory approach — criticizing Bitcoin (BTC) — is only serving to push more people into criminals’ clutches. I have personally been impersonated on social media due to my association with blockchain, and the criminals behind it attempted to swindle funds from my followers and friends. Despite filing police reports and injunctions, no progress has been made in catching them.There are plenty of problems in cryptocurrency that are well worth attacking. But from Europe to the United States, regulators fight the same straw “bogeyman” of Bitcoin. The European Central Bank’s latest comments serve as an example: “Bitcoin has failed on the promise to be a global decentralized digital currency and is still hardly used for legitimate transfer,” ECB officials Ulrich Bindseil and Jürgen Schaaf wrote in a post for the ECB’s blog.Read more
International authorities collaborated to shut down Samourai Wallet and arrested its two founders on April 24 after the US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed criminal charges against the privacy wallet over allegations of facilitating money laundering. Samourai’s website currently displays a seizure notice that notes Icelandic law enforcement, Interpol, and Europol were involved in the […]
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Key on-chain metrics suggest a higher baseline for Bitcoin price now that the halving is complete.
Analyst and founder of the Capriole Investments fund Charles Edwards said multiple on-chain metrics suggest that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have “a lot further to run” in this bull market.In his latest newsletter, Edwards explained that transaction fees from the recent Runes launch and other long-term metrics after the Bitcoin halving suggest “higher baseline Bitcoin (BTC) prices. Bitcoin’s fourth halving resulted in a 50% drop in the digital asset’s supply growth rate, surpassing gold in terms of inflation rate. Read more
The Canadian financial sector witnessed a significant uptick in crypto adoption in 2023, according to a recent survey by KPMG in Canada. Financial firms offering crypto products and services increased by 22% from 2021, while institutional investors incorporating crypto into their portfolios rose by 26% during the same period. Resurgence Financial Services: 50% of respondents […]
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The crypto mixer allegedly handled $2 billion in unlawful transactions and facilitated $100 million in money laundering.
The co-founders of cryptocurrency mixer Samourai Wallet have been arrested on charges of money laundering brought by the United States Justice Department (DOJ) and other agencies. Samourai Wallet CEO Keonne Rodriguez and chief technology officer William Hill will each face one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, with a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, with a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Rodriguez was arrested on the morning of April 24 in Pennsylvania, and Hill was arrested the same day in Portugal. According to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, the United States will seek Hill’s extradition. The company’s servers and domain were also seized in Iceland, and a warrant has been served to stop downloads of the company’s app from the Google Play Store. The app has been downloaded more than 100,000 times. Read more
An expert in U.S. federal prisons suggested that the former Binance CEO, if sentenced to incarceration, could face the risk of “theft and extortion” from other inmates.
Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has requested that a federal judge sentence him to probation after pleading guilty to violating money laundering laws. His legal team has filed several declarations in support of his recommendation, including one suggesting he could serve time at the Federal Detention Center (FDC) SeaTac, Washington.In an April 23 filing in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Seattle, Robert Palmquist said it was “highly probable” that, if given prison time, Zhao would serve his sentence at FDC SeaTac. Palmquist, who served as warden of the Washington facility from 2003 to 2009, described it as having “little natural light” with the prison understaffed, given the number of inmates.“If Mr. Zhao is incarcerated […] his wealth and status as a public figure would expose him to a risk of threats to his physical and mental health, including but not limited to theft and extortion,” said Palmquist. “Mr. Zhao would encounter offenders of all security levels and potentially be prey to predators with high security designations due to his naivety concerning prison experiences and his financial resources.”Read more
The collectibles will include “money can’t buy” experiences such as pitch-side seats for exclusive team training events.
The Premier League’s Manchester City Football Club has entered into a multi-year partnership with Animoca Brands subsidiary Quidd to develop and launch digital collectibles alongside new promotions and fan experiences. Quidd will create and launch “special edition” digital collectibles including cards that will unlock real-world experiences. Tom Boyle, Vice-President, Global Partnerships Marketing and Operations at City Football Group announced the partnership in a blog post adding: Read more
Suggested fines the securities watchdog suggested for Terraform Labs and Ripple are out-of-line with what it has collected from crypto firms in the past.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has taken preliminary steps to investigate recent partnerships made by top AI sector participants, according to an April 24 release. The CMA invited comments on Microsoft’s partnership with Mistral AI, Amazon’s partnership with Anthropic, and Microsoft’s hiring and licensing arrangement with Inflection AI. The antitrust agency aims to […]
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KPMG Canada partner Kunal Bhasin says rising debt and increasing inflation have likely attracted institutional investors into crypto. Canada-based institutional investors significantly increased their crypto exposure last year compared to the last bull run, a survey from accounting firm KPMG has revealed.Nearly 40% of institutional investors reported having direct or indirect exposure to crypto assets in 2023 — up from 31% in KPMG’s 2021 study, the company according to an April 24 report. KPMG received 65 responses, 31 of which identified as institutional investors with most managing more than $500 million in assets, while the remaining 34 were financial services organizations. Read more
On April 20, the day of the Bitcoin halving, total transaction fees paid to miners jumped to 1,257.71 BTC, the highest since December 2017. The high amounts starkly contrasted with fees from the previous day, which amounted to only 116.94 BTC. When viewed alongside the decreased block rewards post-halving, this surge in transaction fees led […] The post High Bitcoin fees push active addresses down to 3-year low appeared first on CryptoSlate.
The latest in blockchain tech upgrades, funding announcements and deals. For the period of April 25-May 1.