Cryptocurrency Podcast by Coin.FM - Bitcoin, Crypto and Blockchain News

Episode #27 The winds of change are starting to blow in the world of cryptocurrency as governments and large investors begin to take the market more seriously. George Soros is a world-renowned investor worth $8 Billion, according to Forbes. For decades, he’s been a trusted influencer in the world of finance and just weeks ago he called Bitcoin a bubble. However, in a surprising turn of events, His $26 billion hedge fund, Soros Fund Management has just announced new plans to… you guessed it -- trade cryptocurrencies! Another big Wall Street player has stepped into the limelight with unexpected news… After about 5 months of “deny, deny, deny”, Goldman Sachs has finally announced that they WILL –in fact—be opening a crypto trading desk. For now, the desk is expected to offer a limited number of derivatives – mainly trading Bitcoin futures, but it’s a definitely start. The CEO of Nasdaq,  the second-largest exchange in the world by market capitalization, behind the New York Stock Exchange and is based in the US, recently gave a bullish outlook regarding cryptos and suggested that Nasdaq may adopt cryptocurrencies at some point in the future. For now, the exchange is securing a foothold in the crypto market through an announced partnership with the Gemini exchange, owned by the Winklevoss twins. Gemini will reportedly be the first digital currency exchange to make use of Nasdaq's SMARTS Market Surveillance Technology, which id designed to monitor & minimize potential violations in trading. So What does all of this mean? By the looks of it, wealthy traditional investors are beginning to test the crypto waters. Hey, if Jamie Diamond could publicly back step and eat his words that Bitcoin is a ‘fraud,’ I suppose anything’s possible. Maybe doing as they do, not as they say isn’t such a bad strategy after all.

Episode #26 Chad Barraford, CEO of Cryptocades.com, gave us the pleasure of stopping by the Coin.FM Podcast to discuss his latest project — a free-to-play blockchain gaming platform, where players use their skills and computer power to win Bitcoin. This hands-on founder leads a team of diverse globetrotting digital nomads and he’s best known for creating Project Jarvis, where he preceded today’s products like Siri or Google Home, and which is similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s more recent Project Jarvis clone. In this episode, Chad shares his technical expertise with insightful tidbits on wallets & browser mining. He also gives us the scoop on his upcoming game release, Asteroid Tycoon. For the first time in mining history, the money you earn from mining isn’t based solely on how powerful your CPU is, but is also based on how well you can strategize and play online games. Visit Cryptocades.com to join the fun!

Episode #25 According to data.coin.fm, Bitcoin Cash – which trades as BCH on many exchanges – has experienced an extraordinary 83% rise just in the past week. Since hitting a low this year of $610 USD on April 6th, the value of Bitcoin Cash has more than doubled to trade at $1440 USD, at current press time on April 23rd. The vertical breakout started at $759 price level on April 17th and has continued with steady double digit percentage point gains day on day. So what’s behind the bullish rise of Bitcoin Cash? Listen in to find out!   Another scheduled Bitcoin Cash fork is planned for November 2018 and unless there is major shift in people’s mindsets, we’ll likely see similar snowball of momentum then. If you’re planning a long-term strategy, definitely keep that in mind. How high do you think Bitcoin Cash will go by the May 18th fork?

Episode #24 Polish prosecutors may have seized around €400 mln from 2 bank accounts allegedly linked to top cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, according to unconfirmed reports from media outlets on April 7. Trustnodes.com published possible connections between Btifinex, Crypto Capital Corp, an alleged for-hire Panamanian company nominee director, and a tiny bank in the Polish country side, in November 2017 investigative report. (https://www.trustnodes.com/2017/11/22/bitfinex-reveals-new-polish-bank-account-panama-registered-company) The Panamanian national is alleged to have ties to Bitfinex and control over one of the accounts, where customers made deposits directed for Bitfinex through 2017. An unidentified man claims to have been questioned by Polish authorities, after receiving a payment from the alleged bank account in question, which apparently contributed to the allegations of money laundering.   Bitfinex’s cold storage holds roughly 1% of all bitcoins in circulation equaling about $1.5B USD in value, according to bitinfocharts.com, and remains one of the largest crypto exchanges. Legal authorities currently are investigating the misuse of cryptocurrencies for illicit purposes in over 30 countries worldwide and there have already been high profile arrests, including that the CEO of worldwide classifieds site Backpage.com. Money laundering is not a new issue created by or even limited to cryptocurrency. Earlier this year, the Chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the need to develop anti-money-laundering (AML) strategies for cryptocurrencies within a global framework, but the a stern focus still needs to be placed on the world's banking giants. For decades, billions—possibly trillions-- of dollars in dirty money have been illegally moved through some of the biggest traditional banks in the world, including: • HSBC • Industrial and Commercial Bank of China • Standard Chartered Bank • Wachovia which is now a part of Wells Fargo From just these names alone, it adds up to a whopping $794 B USD. It would be so awesome if international regulators crack down on the banking institutions that continue to control the vast majority of the worlds assets. Until then, guard your coins and buy & sell only with trusted exchange partners. Shameless plug warning -- Did you know you can bitcoins with a credit/debit card at http://buy.coin.fm?

Episode #23 Early on the morning of March 22nd, the Nikkei Asian Review published an article with the headline "Japan to warn Hong Kong-based crypto exchange: Criminal charges to be filed if Binance fails to halt Japan operations." Yikes -- It certainly got our attention! The FSA has been clamping down on cryptocurrency venues after a $500 million theft from Japanese exchange Coincheck in January. CZ, the CEO of Binance, took to Twitter saying, "Nikkei showed irresponsible journalism. We are in constructive dialogs with Japan FSA, and have not received any mandates." Within minutes of the news story circulating, bitcoin took a swift nosedive, dropping over 5% from $9040 USD to trade at just above $8600 later in the day, at the time of reporting. Do you think there any truth to this or is it just another case of irresponsible journalism as CZ claims?

Episode #22 After dipping to a one-month low of under $7900 USD on March 18th, Bitcoin is on a fresh rally thanks to  leaders of the G20 nations. The verdict for now –- when it comes to crypto regulations, the world's economic decision makers are going to take a beat and regroup in July. The fear among some speculators was that the G20 would completely squash the rise of cryptocurrency through collaborative policies and policing across nations, but it looks like we've been spared... for now. Within a single country, policymakers are having a hard time dealing with cryptocurrencies, so how they’ll pull together to create singular rules they can all agree on is anyone’s guess.

Episode #21 Google finally officially announced it's decision to block all crypto-related ads from all of its platforms beginning June 2018. For weeks, several crypto advertisers had been publicly complaining that their accounts were seeing significantly reduced traffic due to ads not being fully served by Google. Support reps of the search engine giant initially denied any change to their policy, but, it turns out, that was either wrong or simply untrue. This decision follows Facebook's announcement in January that they would block crypto ads on their platform. Too bad, so sad. Source: https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/7648803?hl=en&ref_topic=29265

Episode #20 The Wyoming State Legislature has passed 5 bills geared to make defining and regulating digital currencies easier than ever. Once signed by the Governor, they will become law. Forbes is reporting that the US State of Wyoming created a new new class of assets in defining cryptocurrency as “Utility Tokens.” While the CFTC and SEC are playing tug of war over whether cryptos should be regulated as commodities or securities, Wyoming has taken a pragmatic, proactive approach to immediate resolve the issue for blockchain businesses and traders. Special kudos to Caitlin Long of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition on this notable achievement!

Episode #19 Cryptocurrency exchanges are raking in millions of dollars, especially the top 10 exchanges, which are estimated to pull in a whopping $3 million USD each day. Interested in starting a crypto exchange business or a bitcoin franchise? Check this out... Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-05/crypto-exchanges-raking-in-billions-emerge-as-kings-of-coins

Episode #18 March 7th was one of the most active days we've seen in a while. The CFTC finally got it's ruling in Federal Court, the SEC made an official statement following up on subpoenas issued to ICOs, and Binance came down with a severe case of the bots. A U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC) definition of cryptocurrencies as commodities, which the regulator has observed since 2015. However, in it's own statement, the SEC announced that it would regulate ICOs and that any exchange that allows investors to buy and sell securities -- ICO's included -- needs to comply with existing SEC rules for exchanges. Yep, that means getting registered with the SEC just like the New York Stock Exchange. So, wait a minute -- the SEC say cryptocurrencies in fact securities? or just the new ICO ones? Huh? Meanwhile a pump and dump scheme was orchestrated on ViaCoin on Binance using bots designed to execute trades automatically. This caused ViaCoin to explode in value from $3 to $200 in just minutes. The exchange denied rumors of a hack, as Bitcoin tumbled over 15% to $9,400 at the time on Binance. All of this is causing uncertainty in the markets and, according to data.coin.fm, with the exception of Monero which is trading at $309.89, all of the top 10 cryptos are all in the red week on week. NEO is leading the plunge, to trade at just $96.81 at press time, 25.33% lower than it's value last week. So, it seems that the hotly-anticipated regulator armageddon has begun. Unfortunately, pump and dumps like what happened on Binance are just more proof for regulators, like the SEC, that oversight is necessary. But, which US agency will regulate the space ultimately -- the CFTC or the SEC? Only time will tell... Stay tuned.

Episode #17 The SEC has issued over 80 subpoenas to various companies, which recently issued ICOs, including retail giant Overstock in regards to its TZERO coin. Although Overstock.com Inc. shares fell 4.4% on the announcement, Bitcoin rapidly regained the 2% drop it initially suffered, to trade steadily above $11,000 at the time of this writing. Since the incredible run up of Bitcoin in Fall 2017 -- and the millions of dollars that have been stolen in exit scams, the SEC has been hinting that it would be following up on the risks that ICOs pose to investors in the crytocurrency markets and the wider economy. Looks like they're making good on their promise.

Episode #16 Circle, a peer-to-peer payments technology company founded in 2013, has officially announced it's acquisition of Poloniex, a popular cryptocurrency exchange. Poloniex is the 18th largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade, according to CoinMarketCap.com. Circle already services plenty of big money "whales" in the cryptocurrency market through its Circle Trade offering, which provides over-the-counter transactions with minimums of $250,000 USD. Circle also provides the Circle Pay app, a direct competitor to Paypal's Venmo, which lets users send money with via text message. So, this foray into servicing small crypto-traders seems like a natural evolution. Except that Circle's apparently been there before... Up until late 2016, Circle Pay also operated as a bitcoin wallet service to buy and sell bitcoins. (See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_(company)#cite_note-11 ; https://blog.circle.com/2016/12/06/spark-new-markets-app-messaging-and-bitcoin-changes/) Apparently, Circle has decided to pivot -- again -- and the decision is making big waves, especially considering that Goldman Sachs is a major investor in the financial startup. Yes, the same Goldman Sachs that, in 2017, said there was "no need for cryptocurrency" -- and then was rumored to have plans to open a crypto trading desk in 2018 -- and then denied it just a few weeks ago. This move gets Goldman Sach's skin solidly in the game... like it or not. Things do change mighty fast in the crypto sphere!

Episode #15 Money.pl is reporting that The Central Bank of Poland has admitted to funding anti-cryptocurrency campaigns on social media. In December 2017, a Polish Youtuber Marcin Dubiel was paid by the Polish government to slander cryptocurrencies an he created a video called “I LOST ALL THE MONEY?!” It's reported that the Polish government spent $27,000 USD on social media to make cryptocurrencies look bad. There were plenty of more ethical options to spread the word on this. Propaganda out of Poland --  Surprise, surprise....

Episode #14 Wyoming Senate Bill 111 has been introduced by a bipartisan group of senators and representatives. It would exempt digital currencies from state property taxation. This bill comes as more US lawmakers are calling for more crypto regulation. Legislators hope that this move would create jobs and boost the state's economy. Listen up to learn the business benefits of Wyoming & see if it's a jurisdiction worth considering for your crypto business.

Episode #13 Get all your news updates for the week

Episode #12 It's time to celebrate all of you e-shop bosses! Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency exchange, is releasing a service like Paypal. Coinbase's new platform will make it easier for merchants to accept payments with Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin through Coinbase Commerce.

Episode #11 It's estimated that about 7% of Americas own some cryptocurrency. However, so far, only .04% of U.S. tax filers have reported their cryptocurrency gains and losses to the Internal Revenue Service so far. What's causing the gap and will it be closed this tax season?

Episode #10 Hackers stole over $500 Million USD in the NEM coin from CoinCheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Japan. Japan's FSA has begun fresh raids on cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the country in an attempt to prevent future incidents. The Mt. Gox hack, which is still dubiously regarded as the most significant in cryptocurrency trading history, also occurred on the watch of authorities in Japan. Is it time for a safer cold wallet solution?

Episode #9 Rumors about Tether (USDT) has again started to swirl last week, following articles from several news outlets that Bintfinex and Tether had been issued a subpoena by the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It was later disclosed that the subpoena was actually issued on December 6, 2018 and, according to Bitcoin.com, "approximately 34.5% of all USDT created were produced after Tether had received the subpoena from the CFTC." Although some have their doubts as to whether USDT has propped up bitcoin and other cryptos, several experts expressed views in favor of the USDT coin and its role in creating transparency in the market. To them, the fact that the Tether is still operating 2 months later, is a clear and positive signal. You can be the judge with your own dollars.

Episode #8 Another day, another banker slamming cryptocurrency as a "fraud." First it was Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan (although he came to regret that), now it's Agustin Carstens. Carstens, the head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) slammed bitcoin as "a combination of a bubble, a Ponzi scheme and environmental disaster." The latter we suppose because of the energy consumption needed to mine it. Funny... similar words could be used to describe the many financial crises directly caused by banks -- most recently in 2008. And we should not forget the illegal money laundering by HSBC in Carstens' native Mexico, where he served as Deputy Secretary of Finance. What do you think -- Does the BIS have it right, or is it actually just BS?