• SCOPE Panel
    Uncategorized

    At Art Basel Miami, security token debate rages on

    ‘There is no AML/KYC in art’

    One can expect lavish parties at Art Basel Miami, the sprawling, star-studded, fashion-infused, week-long rave in early December that this year featured the works, insights and sounds of Christo, Bansky, Venus Williams, Sofi Tukker, Calvin Harris, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Paris Hilton and other personalities. But increasingly leading tech brands like Google and LG are in the mix offering lavish CES/Coachella-like experiences, all in an effort to grab the attention of the luxury goods crowd. From opening night on December 5 at The Bass Museum of Art to closing night on December 8 at the Versace Mansion, you never would have known that FAANG and crypto prices were…

  • Are tether tokens really backed by dollars? (via Shutterstock)
    Media,  Opinion,  Tether

    Bloomberg’s Tether story doesn’t answer persisting questions

    The real concern with Tether isn’t whether or not it has enough cash in the bank

    Tether advocates rejoiced on Tuesday after a story by Bloomberg’s Matt Leising seemed to reassure readers that the stablecoin had enough dollars to back each token. “Bank statements reviewed by Bloomberg News suggest those fears may be unfounded,” Leising wrote. The story’s big contribution to the Tether debate was only that Bloomberg saw four separate months’ worth of Tether’s balances and each exceeded the amount of circulating tokens. Yet Tether’s bank balances should be expected to be positive at month’s end. As written in the often-cited study by John Griffin and Amin Shams of the University of Texas on alleged manipulation of Bitcoin prices using tethers: “the strong negative effect on…

  • The Winklevoss twins
    Bitcoin

    Winklevoss-backed Gemini dollar sees questionable trade volume

    China’s OEX swamps CoinMarketCap with trade data, but are they for real?

    Something strange is going on with the stablecoin issued by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss’ Gemini Trust Company. Over the past several days, CoinMarketCap data on trading using the Gemini dollar (GUSD) has spiked dramatically—and it all seems to stem from one exchange, the China-based OEX. Seemingly overnight, there was a surge in GUSD daily trading volume. From December 2 to December 13, that number was in a range between roughly 1.4 million and 2.3 million, according to CoinMarketCap. However, on December 14 and 15, daily trading volume was around 18 million. On December 16 and 17, it was around 30 million. Before then, the figure never exceeded 17.6 million. As…

  • Mick Mulvaney at Coin Center Annual Dinner, 2016
    Bitcoin,  United States

    New White House Chief of Staff: Bitcoin is good, ‘not manipulable by any government’

    Mick Mulvaney has been down with crypto since 2014 and shared stages with Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin

    President Trump says director of the Office of Management and Budget—and Bitcoin enthusiast—Mick Mulvaney will come on as acting White House chief of staff when John Kelly leaves the end of the year. Mulvaney will stay on at the OMB where he was narrowly approved by the Senate by just two votes in 2017. With the government headed to a potential shutdown over a budget disagreement, who better to step in than Mulvaney, one of the architects of the 2017 government shutdown? At the time, he said, “What we just did this week was fine and passable, but not ideal. … I think a good shutdown would be one that…