• Finland hotspot illegal Bitcoin
    Bitcoin,  Europe,  United States

    CipherTrace: Finland a hotspot for illegal Bitcoin

    The tranquil Scandinavian nation is home to the Northern Lights, but down on the ground it’s also a haven for darknet scammers attempting to cash out; CipherTrace report finds $1.4 billion lost this year, criminals getting savvy to anti-money laundering

    CipherTrace says 12.1% of Bitcoin funds sent to Finnish exchanges come directly from criminal sources. As a percentage, that’s the highest worldwide, making Finland a hotspot for illegal Bitcoin. LocalBitcoins, a peer-to-peer crypto marketplace, is partly to blame. It is based in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, and received 99% of these ill-gotten funds, according to a report.

  • marijuana buds plus bitcoin
    Bitcoin,  Europe

    Irish drug dealer claims $60 million in Bitcoin thrown away while in jail

    Which is very convenient as police know the public addresses of the wallets where they’re stored, and have formally seized the ill-gotten gains

    Irish police have come to believe that jailed pot dealer Clifton Collins lost key codes to nearly $60 million worth of bitcoins when his landlord threw out his belongings.

  • Alexander Zhuravlev, managing partner of the Efficient Business Resources (EBR) law firm, chairman of the commission for the legal support of the digital economy in the Moscow branch of the Russian bar association, and cofounder of the additional education program at the Russian organization of BCL, or Blockchain Lawyers (via Alexander Zhuravlev).
    Europe

    ‘If legislation does not exist, is everything permitted?’: An in-depth look at Russia’s long path to crypto legislation

    Russia has been struggling to pass comprehensive cryptocurrency reform for over two years. With the bill on crowdfunding finally set to go into effect in 2020, what’s going on with the arguably more crypto-related bill on digital financial assets?

    Russia’s path to cryptocurrency legislation been long and complex, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary for a country seems to do a lot of things the hard way.

  • Cryptocurrencies,  Europe,  Libra,  Regulation,  United States

    Overwrought vs. overhyped: From France and America, dueling views of digital currencies

    Whether issued privately by Facebook’s or publicly by a central bank, digital currencies bring strong opinions and flights of rhetoric

    Flights of rhetoric surrounding Facebook’s Libra stablecoin and other digital currencies has reached impressive heights at times. But former U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo took it beyond the stratosphere in an October 15 editorial, comparing the launch of an American central bank-backed digital currency to the Apollo 11 mission.