Terwijl het debat voortduurt over welke van Bitcoin en goud de voorkeur verdient als opslagplaats van waarde, blijkt uit online gegevens dat de belangstelling voor het kopen van Bitcoin zeer snel toeneemt. Volgens de Canadese cryptobeurs CoinSmart is de belangstelling voor Bitcoin meer dan verdubbeld ten opzichte van goud.

Dit komt overeen met gegevens van Google Trends

Dit komt overeen met gegevens van Google Trends, waaruit duidelijk blijkt dat de belangstelling voor Bitcoin nog maar kort geleden was, aangezien goud al lange tijd de favoriete opslagplaats van waarde is. De piek in de rente vond pas plaats in januari 2021, samenvallend met de stijging van de Bitcoinprijs die deze naar de nieuwe all-time high van meer dan $41k bracht.

Bitcoin heeft de aandacht getrokken van investeerders van buiten de sector. De interesse wordt vooral gedreven door de stijgende waarde van Bitcoin, waardoor velen het zien als een hedge tegen inflatie. Dit is belangrijk geworden nu de Amerikaanse dollar, die vroeger de reservevaluta van de wereld was, blijft depreciëren als gevolg van inflatie.

Het wordt ook wel digitaal goud genoemd vanwege dit gebruik en krijgt de voorkeur vanwege een aantal factoren. Een van deze factoren is de mogelijkheid om het gemakkelijk over de grens mee te nemen, in tegenstelling tot goud, dat veel ruimte vergt om te dragen en te vervoeren. Bitcoin slaat ook niet alleen waarde op, maar verhoogt ook de waarde.

In 2020 steeg de waarde van Bitcoin met meer dan 300%

De goudprijs daarentegen sloot het jaar af met een verandering van -0,03. Hoewel analisten voorspelden dat de prijs in januari 2021 weer zal stijgen, ligt de prestatie tot nu toe dit jaar nog steeds ver onder die van Bitcoin.

Het zou op basis van deze prestatie kunnen zijn dat de strategen van JPMorgan stelden dat goud nog jaren zal lijden onder de aanhoudende groei van Bitcoin. De bank verklaarde dat de adoptie van de cryptocurrency door beleggers nog maar net op gang is gekomen, ook al is er voor miljarden USD aan bedrijfsgeld geïnvesteerd in het digitale activum. Uit verschillende onderzoeken is gebleken dat millennials de voorkeur geven aan Bitcoin als belegging boven goud, dus de trend kan zich in de toekomst inderdaad voortzetten naarmate meer mensen erin beleggen en veel minder beleggers goud aanhouden.

Os estrategistas do JPMorgan Chase acreditam que a atual adoção e taxa de investimento que a Bitcoin tem pode potencialmente elevar o preço da moeda a um nível consensual de $50.000 a $100.000.

Analistas do banco de investimento multinacional americano e da empresa de serviços financeiros JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) deram uma previsão de preço ambiciosa para a Bitcoin (BTC), mas a meta é cobrada a longo prazo. Segundo um relatório da Bloomberg, os analistas, liderados por Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, disseram que o fato de a Bitcoin estar em concorrência direta com o Ouro como uma classe de ativos cria a possibilidade de o preço da moeda criptográfica crescer para $146.000 a longo prazo.

Com a atual capitalização de mercado da Bitcoin fixada em $590 bilhões no momento da redação de acordo com a CoinMarketCap, a principal moeda digital terá que aumentar seu limite de mercado em cerca de 4,6 vezes antes de atingir a meta de preço projetada de $146.000, de acordo com a estimativa dos estrategistas. Eles observaram que a obtenção deste valor depende da convergência da volatilidade da Bitcoin para atender a do Ouro, um processo que eles observaram que levará algum tempo.

„Uma evicção do ouro como moeda ‚alternativa‘ implica em uma grande vantagem para a Bitcoin a longo prazo“, escreveram os estrategistas na segunda-feira. Entretanto, „uma convergência nas volatilidades entre o Bitcoin e o ouro é improvável que aconteça rapidamente e é em nossa mente um processo plurianual. Isto implica que a meta teórica de preço de Bitcoin acima de $146.000 deve ser considerada como uma meta de longo prazo e, portanto, uma meta de preço insustentável para este ano“.

O preço-desempenho da Bitcoin particularmente no último trimestre de 2020 e nos primeiros dias de 2021 tem alimentado projeções de preços contínuas de analistas e proponentes da Bitcoin, mas a maioria delas é impulsionada pelos sentimentos de adoção institucional e não se baseia em dados reais analisados. A volatilidade da Bitcoin empurrou a moeda para seu pior fechamento em meses na segunda-feira, quando fechou 17%, mas a moeda está atualmente de volta ao seu surto selvagem com um surto de 4,95% nas últimas 24 horas.

JPMorgan Fala sobre a Sustentabilidade do Preço Atual da Bitcoin

Os estrategistas da JPMorgan Chase & Co acreditam que a atual taxa de adoção e investimento que a Bitcoin está experimentando pode potencialmente levar o preço da moeda a um consenso de preços elevados de $50.000 a $100.000, mas a questão é se este nível de preço tem o suporte necessário para a sustentabilidade. Eles escreveram:

„A valorização e o cenário de posição tornou-se muito mais desafiador para a Bitcoin no início do Ano Novo. Embora não possamos excluir a possibilidade de que a atual mania especulativa se propague empurrando ainda mais o preço da Bitcoin para a região de consenso entre $50.000 e $100.000, acreditamos que tais níveis de preços se mostrariam insustentáveis“.

Cada Bitcoin de acordo com a CoinMarketCap vale atualmente cerca de $31.900 no momento em que é escrito e este preço é caracterizado pelo tipo de volatilidade que pode impulsionar o preço para cima ou para baixo nas próximas horas. Enquanto o tempo dirá se as previsões de empresas como JPMorgan Chase serão atingidas, muitos proponentes da BTC são incansáveis em seu esforço para ajudar a levar a BTC a novas alturas com as pressões de compra.

Het lijkt erop dat Bitcoin in feeststemming is. Op zaterdag (2 januari) ging Bitcoin, volgens gegevens van TradingView, minder dan zeven uur na het doorbreken van het $ 30K-niveau op Coinbase door het prijsniveau van $ 31.000, $ 32.000 en $ 33,00 als een heet mes door boter.

Momenteel (vanaf 17:24 UTC op 2 januari) wordt Bitcoin verhandeld voor $ 32.467, een stijging van 10,57% in de afgelopen 24 uur en een stijging van 12,24% in 2021

Volgens gegevens van CryptoCompare is de marktkapitalisatie van Bitcoin momenteel ongeveer $ 603 miljard.

Hier zijn een paar interessante Bitcoin-statistieken door crypto- analysebedrijf IntoTheBlock :

John Todaro, Head of Research bij TradeBlock, zegt dat retail FOMO nog niet eens is begonnen:

Een van de vele crypto-analisten die moeite hebben om de krankzinnige prijsactie van vandaag bij te houden, is Michaël van de Poppe:

Scott Melker, een cryptohandelaar bij Texas West Capital, zegt dat het voortdurende vertoon van kracht van Bitcoin laat zien dat institutionele beleggers die de afgelopen maanden Bitcoin hebben gekocht niet gemakkelijk zullen worden losgekoppeld van hun BTC-bezit omdat ze er voor de lange termijn in zitten (in tegenstelling tot particuliere beleggers die in 2018 Bitcoin met te veel hefboomwerking kochten).

En aangezien Bitcoin op zondag (3 januari) zijn 12e verjaardag viert (dwz de verjaardag van de mijnbouw van het genesisblok), lijkt het niet onredelijk om te verwachten dat de sterke rally van Bitcoin wordt verlengd.

Si planea lanzar una startup relacionada con bitcoin, entonces BitcoinAdvertising.com es un nombre de dominio perfecto para usted. El dominio ya está disponible para la venta en Coinnounce. Un nombre de dominio adecuado podría ayudarlo a destacarse entre sus competidores y ayudarlo a llegar a una audiencia más amplia. El nombre de dominio Bitcoin Loophole está garantizado para hacer eso para su negocio relacionado con las criptomonedas. Puede hacer una oferta para comprar el nombre de dominio ahora mismo.

Un nombre de dominio versátil

BitcoinAdvertising.com es un nombre de dominio versátil para su puesta en marcha relacionada con la criptomoneda . El nombre de dominio podría usarse para muchos servicios relacionados con las criptomonedas, como una plataforma de publicidad, una empresa de marketing, un servicio de pago por clic, una aplicación de bitcoin, una aplicación de criptografía y muchos otros servicios similares. BitcoinAdverstising.com es un nombre de dominio descriptivo que está garantizado para atraer a una gama más amplia de visitantes a su plataforma desde diferentes áreas geográficas. El nombre de dominio ahora está disponible para que lo compre para su plataforma relacionada con la criptomoneda. Un nombre de dominio versátil se considera importante ya que podría usarse para diferentes tipos de negocios.

Amplíe su alcance utilizando un nombre de dominio adecuado

Un nombre de dominio adecuado para su negocio podría expandir el alcance de su empresa muchas veces en poco tiempo. Un nombre de dominio como Bitcoinadvertising.com podría ayudarlo a expandir el alcance de su empresa de cifrado a una gama más amplia de visitantes. El nombre de dominio también es un nombre de marca para su negocio relacionado con las criptomonedas. La industria de las criptomonedas ha recorrido un largo camino desde el inicio de bitcoin hace casi una década, y continúa creciendo a una velocidad impresionante. Si está ingresando a la industria de la criptografía en este momento y está buscando un nombre de dominio para su sitio web, BitcoinAdveritising.com es un nombre de dominio perfecto.

Por qué el nombre de dominio es importante para su inicio:

Seleccionar un nombre de dominio para su empresa puede ser un proceso complicado, y crear un nombre original que aún no se haya tomado es una tarea aún más imposible. Sin embargo, elegir un nombre de dominio perfecto sigue siendo una tarea muy importante. En lugar de navegar entre cientos de nombres de dominio, puede elegir un nombre de dominio como Bitcoinadvertising.com ahora mismo para ayudar a impulsar su negocio y llevarlo a nuevas alturas. Un nombre de dominio podría jugar un papel muy importante en el éxito de su negocio. Un nombre de dominio podría eventualmente decidir el destino de su empresa y no puede equivocarse con un nombre de dominio como BitcoinAdvertising.com.

That the Bitcoin price will reach $ 100,000 – $ 200,000 in the next 12 months is a fairly common, if not „conservative“ prediction. But if these are already being labeled as conservative, which price targets are more realistic?

While one is undoubtedly “in for the technology,” the most popular and hotly debated topic remains the price of Bitcoin (BTC) and speculation about its future value.

Bitcoin price is currently in a bull market cycle, up over 200% since the beginning of the year and outperforming pretty much everything else in 2020, with the exception of a few stocks like Tesla. But this rally seems to be different from the one from the end of 2017. On the one hand, the all-time high has definitely been broken and, on the other hand, it is primarily institutional traders who are accumulating, while the public is still largely sitting on the sidelines and watching.

A flood of money and credit plays into the hands of BTC

Six-digit price forecasts for Bitcoin are becoming increasingly common in this bull cycle, with central banks‘ accelerated monetary expansion being the main driver for such assumptions.

In fact, billionaires and long-established investors like Ray Dalio are starting to warm to the idea of ​​Bitcoin alongside gold. BTC is increasingly perceived as an opportunity to diversify against what Ray Dalio calls, for example, „the depreciation of money“. On Reddit , the economist warned readers there with the following words:

“We are in a deluge of money and credit that is raising most asset prices and distributing wealth in a way that the system we believe is normal cannot and is a threat to the value of our money and credit.

Why does that play into the hands of the valuation of BTC? Quite simply, because apart from the fact that Bitcoin was conceived as a deflationary monetary good in the future, the Bitcoin price is mainly measured in dollars. Ray Dalio puts it like this:

Most likely, this tide will not recede, so these assets [like Bitcoin] will not go down when measured in the decreasing value of money. It is important to be well diversified, both in terms of currencies and countries, as well as asset classes.

Will Bitcoin Price Reach $ 100,000- $ 200,000?

Mark Yusko, the CEO of Morgan Creek, believes the Bitcoin price could exceed $ 100,000 over the course of the next year. This estimate reflects the forecast of the popular stock-to-flow (S2F) model, which its creator PlanB says BTC is still on the right track. Last month he repeated that he no longer has any doubt that the Bitcoin price will reach $ 100,000 by December 2021 due to a „supply shortage“. Last month , he tweeted about this:

People ask if I still believe in my model. To be clear, I have no doubt that Bitcoin S2FX is correct and that Bitcoin will hit $ 100,000-288,000 before December 2021.

Is $ 200,000- $ 300,000 a „conservative“ forecast?

The price of BTC has done an insane rally this year with a good 300%. Still, Bitcoin price predictions of around $ 200,000 by the end of 2021 assume that the leading crypto currency will far outperform this successful year. Because in order to achieve this price target, measured against the current price, BTC will have to add a further increase in value of a good 700%. That’s quite a lot!

Nevertheless, this price prediction even seems relatively tame when we compare it with the Bitcoin price predictions of other analysts. For example, popular on-chain analyst Will Woo says he’s seeing more evidence of “hodling” this time around, as well as dwindling supply of BTC on the exchanges as a result of the aforementioned inventory shortage.

When bitcoins play hide and seek – On August 2, 2016, one of the biggest hacks in cryptosphere history took place: the Bitfinex platform lost 120,000 bitcoins (BTC). Of this gigantic sum, which would represent nearly $ 2.3 billion today, 100 million have just moved, creating a general alert within the crypto-community.

5,045 stolen BTC roaming the blockchain

Since their piracy, bitcoins stolen from Bitcoin Bank have regularly been talked about, as last July, when 2,550 BTC was moved .

This time, it is an even greater amount of theft that transits on the Bitcoin blockchain, since a total of just over 5,045 BTC has been transferred by the hackers.

Various blockchain transaction tracking tools – like Whale Alert below – immediately sounded the alarm on 14 transactions related to the Bitfinex hack. Transactions that have been validated up to blocks 659 373 and 659 374 .

A „profit taking“ by hackers?

These wallet-to-wallet transfers thus total a value that fluctuates around $ 100 million , following the currently changing price of bitcoin, which is flirting with its all-time high.

This latest set of moves is the most significant hackers in a long time. What makes you wonder if the recent and sharp rise in the price of BTC does not encourage criminals to try to resell part of their loot .

To date, only 28 small bitcoins have been recovered and returned to the Bitfinex crypto exchange, with the rest of the BTC still running.

Was die „Fusion“ von YFI und SushiSwap für die DeFi bedeutet

Yearn Finance arbeitet mit SushiSwap zusammen, um beide Protokolle zu verbessern. Die jüngste DeFi-Zusammenarbeit könnte Benutzern zugute kommen, die auf der Suche nach innovativen Projekten und besserer Sicherheit sind.

• Yearn Finance und SushiSwap haben Pläne angekündigt, eng zusammenzuarbeiten, Ressourcen zu teilen und bessere Dienstleistungen für beide Protokolle aufzubauen.
• Yearn hat in den letzten Tagen eine Flut von ähnlichen Kooperationen angekündigt, die Ressourcen aus verschiedenen Ecken des DeFi-Ökosystems zusammenführen.
• Dabei handelt es sich nicht um Fusionen oder Übernahmen, sondern die Zusammenarbeit zeigt die Umrisse für die Zukunft der DeFi-Industrie auf.

Yearn Finance, das Ertragsoptimierungsprotokoll, das zu einem der mit Bitcoin System bekanntesten Projekte im DeFi-Ökosystem geworden ist, verbindet seine Kräfte mit dem dezentralisierten Austausch von SushiSwap. Es ist das jüngste in einer Reihe von hochkarätigen Kooperationen für Yearn.

Andre Cronje, der Gründer von Yearn Finance, kündigte heute eine neue Beziehung mit SushiSwap an, die darauf abzielt, die Entwicklung und Integration beider DeFi-Angebote zu verbessern. Da das Eigentum an beiden Protokollen bei den Unterstützern dezentralisiert ist, handelt es sich bei der verstärkten Zusammenarbeit zwischen den beiden Protokollen nicht gerade um eine Fusion oder eine Übernahme, aber sie dürfte sich positiv auf die zumeist quelloffene DeFi-Industrie auswirken.

Das „Manifest der Jahresfinanzen“ verkündet eine führerlose DeFi-Vision

Contributors to Yearn Finance, eines der frühesten und radikalsten Experimente im Bereich der dezentralisierten Regierungsführung, hat heute ein Manifest veröffentlicht, das den einzigartigen Charakter des DeFi-Protokolls umreißt. „Wie w…

„Ich habe keine Antwort darauf, ob es sich dabei um Fusionen, Übernahmen, Partnerschaften oder Kooperationen handelt“, sagte Cronje in einem Medium-Beitrag vom 29. November, der die Kooperationsstrategie von Yearn berührte. „Die einfache Antwort ist, dass die Teams ein bisschen von jedem, die Teams fusionieren, die Protokolle sich gegenseitig beeinflussen, die Vision aufeinander abgestimmt ist und von allen Teammitgliedern geteilt wird. Das ist etwas Neues, das meiner Meinung nach nicht in die Kisten passt, die wir bisher verwendet haben.

DeFi, die Abkürzung für „decentralized finance“, ist eine Gruppe von Protokollen, die Finanzdienstleistungen wie Darlehen und Zinsen auf Einlagen anbieten, ohne dass eine Bank oder eine andere Geldwechselinstitution notwendig ist. Stattdessen verlässt sich DeFi auf intelligente Verträge, typischerweise auf die Ethereum-Blockkette.

Es wird erwartet, dass die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Yearn-SushiSwap die Entwicklung beider Protokolle beschleunigen und verbessern wird, da die Teams zusammenarbeiten und verschiedene Teile des jeweils anderen intelligenten Vertragscode-Designs integrieren. Dies dürfte dazu beitragen, die Ertragsoptimierungsstrategien von Yearn rentabler zu machen und gleichzeitig die Fähigkeiten und die Sicherheit des dezentralisierten Austauschs mit dem Automated Market Maker (AMM) von SushiSwap zu verbessern.

SushiSwap wurde ursprünglich als Kopie des beliebten dezentralen Austauschdienstes Uniswap auf den Markt gebracht und bot einige Unterscheidungsmerkmale wie ein Protokoll-Token mit Stimmrecht (zu dieser Zeit war der UNI-Token von Uniswap noch nicht veröffentlicht). Die DEX geriet schon früh in eine Vertrauenskrise, als der anonyme Gründer 0xMaki bereit schien, mit den für die Entwicklung der Plattform bereitgestellten Mitteln abzuheben. Der Gründer der FTX-Börse, Sam Bankman-Fried, übernahm die Kontrolle über das Protokoll und half beim Übergang zu einer ordnungsgemäßen dezentralisierten Verwaltung, und 0xMaki gab das Geld schließlich zurück.

Yearn, das herausragende DeFi-Produkt, hat schon früher mit anderen, eher jüngeren Projekten zusammengearbeitet und Ressourcen mit dem ertragsoptimierenden Pickle Finance, dem dezentralisierten Exchange Deriswap und dem Leverage-Lending-Anbieter Cream geteilt.

Solche Kooperationen stoßen an die Grenzen eines der mächtigsten Aspekte von DeFi: die Zusammensetzbarkeit. Um Tausende von Benutzern ohne zentrale Autorität zu erreichen, sollte der zugrunde liegende blockkettenbasierte Anwendungscode in hohem Maße austauschbar sein. Dies hat den verschiedenen Komponenten von DeFi den Spitznamen „Money Legos“ eingebracht, da sie in der Lage sind, sich miteinander zu verknüpfen und völlig neue Funktionen aufzubauen.

Für die Endbenutzer sollte es mehr innovative Finanzprodukte und -dienstleistungen bedeuten, zusammen mit größerer Sicherheit und weniger Missbräuchen, da Möchtegern-Konkurrenten Korrekturen teilen und anwenden, die sich schnell in der gesamten Branche verbreiten.

Die Hektik der Yearn-Kooperationen bietet eine Vision von einer Zukunft, in der eine tiefe Zusammenarbeit zwischen Open-Source-Projekten der Standard und nicht die Ausnahme ist. Zunächst jedoch muss die geplante Zusammenarbeit zwischen SushiSwap und Yearn von den Inhabern von Marken beider Projekte genehmigt werden.

Alexander Höptner, CEO of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange since 2018, will be the new head of 100x, the holding company behind the Bitcoin derivatives exchange Bitmex.

December begins with a bang: with Alexander Höptner, the head of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange is switching to the crypto industry

In January 2021, Höptner will take up his new position as CEO of the 100x Group. It is the holding company of the Bitcoin derivatives platform Bitmex .

The BitMEX platform forever changed the way we trade 1k Daily Profit, and 100x Group will forever change the way we use modern financial services. […] I will ensure that the 100x Group and the BitMEX platform continue to play a leading, constructive role in the global development of the digital asset markets.

JustTRADE is the first German provider to offer an all-in-one solution for trading crypto currencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, …) stocks, ETFs and certificates. The website & app are designed intuitively, offer many useful features and are suitable for both beginners and advanced traders. The best: there are no transaction costs or network fees.

Höptner can be quoted in a press release on December 1st .

Alex comes to us at a time when the company is on the path of transformation into our next phase of growth and development and I am confident that he will make an important contribution with his experience.

David Wong, Chairman of the 100x Group, is certain

Höptner gained the experience to which Wong alludes both on the traditional trading floor and in the crypto space. He held various management positions at Deutsche Börse AG for 15 years before becoming CEO at Boerse Stuttgart in 2018. There, Germany’s first regulated trading platform for digital assets was created under his leadership with the Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX) .

In Stuttgart, however, Höptner’s departure is grudgingly accepted:

We very much regret Mr. Höptner’s departure and would like to thank him for his excellent work in recent years. We wish Mr. Höptner all the best for the future,

commentedMichael Völter from the Vereinigung Baden-Württembergische Wertpapierbörse eV, the parent company of the Stuttgart Stock Exchange, made the move from Alexander Höptner to Bitmex Holding. One can assume that this at 100x will also contribute to blurring the boundaries between crypto and traditional financial markets.

Un investisseur inconnu de Bitcoin paie des dizaines de milliers de dollars en frais de transaction pour déplacer un petit montant de BTC.

Selon les dernières données de l’explorateur de blocs, l’utilisateur a envoyé un total de 0,01088549 BTC d’une valeur de 194 $ à un portefeuille inconnu et a déboursé 2,66 BTC d’une valeur de 47 000 $ en frais de transaction.

Le transfert a d’abord été repéré par l’outil de suivi automatisé des livres comptables distribués connu sous le nom de Bitcoin Block Bot.

Ce transfert coûteux s’explique par la forte baisse des frais de transaction de Bitcoin.

BitInfoCharts rapporte que les frais de transaction moyens actuels ne sont que de 0,00027 BTC pour une valeur de 4,82 $, soit une baisse de 63 % par rapport aux frais de transfert d’octobre, lorsque les frais ont grimpé en flèche pour atteindre une moyenne de 13,15 $ après que la principale devise de cryptologie ait franchi la résistance des clés de 10 000 $.

Au début de ce mois, deux Crypto Cash ont déplacé près d’un demi-milliard de dollars de BTC et ont payé des frais de transaction combinés de 46 dollars seulement.

Le cas des frais de transaction exceptionnellement exorbitants est probablement le résultat d’une erreur humaine. L’utilisateur de Bitcoin a peut-être commis une erreur en effectuant manuellement la transaction BTC.

En outre, les données de l’explorateur de blocs indiquent que la transaction a pu être un auto-transfert puisqu’il n’y a pas eu de changement. Dans de nombreux cas, les transactions CTB ont deux sorties : une pour le paiement et la seconde pour renvoyer la monnaie, s’il y en a une, à l’utilisateur.

With the election in focus on all the news, we see what new appointments can mean for the DoJ

Every Friday, Law Decoded provides analysis of the week’s critical stories in the fields of policy, regulation and law.

Editor’s note

Did you overcome the election? The election is over. But you can bet that as soon as I finish writing this week’s Law Decoded, I will compulsively check what is happening in Georgia and Pennsylvania. And it looks like I’m not alone.

Although the election hijacked the entire news cycle, the cryptomorphs were not entirely left out. Probably more remarkable, Bitcoin is reaching levels never seen since January 2018. Since the price of BTC usually reacts positively to fears of political instability, this is not entirely surprising.

More specific to regulators‘ interactions with cryptoactives are the continued enforcement measures. Taking the lead internationally is the US Department of Justice.

Law Decoded spoke a lot about the DoJ last month, and for good reasons. They have taken huge steps to address what they consider illegal use of cryptography since the launch of a framework for application in virtual currencies in early October.

Although we may be facing some legal tantrums and recounts, Biden seems to have won the White House. The DoJ is headed by the Attorney General – currently appointed by Trump, Bill Barr.

Although the regulator is unlikely to back down on his new crypto-monitoring capabilities, Barr has been at the forefront of this struggle, as have other anti-technology measures to ban end-to-end crypto and Section 230 crypto. The attitudes of any candidate that Biden will nominate to replace Barr will therefore be critical.

DoJ

The Department of Justice filed a request for the seizure of a large stock of tokens originating from Silk Road, after an investigation by the IRS and Chainalysis.

The stock of cryptomens is worth a total of $1 billion and was under the control of an unidentified hacker, whom the DoJ’s record enigmatically refers to as „Individual X“.

According to the case, in 2013 Individual X stole at least 69,471 Bitcoin from Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road currently serving a life sentence.

Since then, with the exception of a 101 BTC transfer to the now defunct BTC-e exchange, these coins have remained virtually untouched, passing through a series of divisions and firing in value.

Some speculation suggests that the hacker in question simply did a great deal to stay out of prison.

The lawsuit suggests that Ross Ulbricht knew his identity online, which may mean that Ulbricht surrendered his information in order to obtain some indulgence for his own sentence. $1 billion could probably persuade the judicial system to be extremely merciful.

Acquisition of Visa Plaid

Last week, the Cointelegraph reported that the DoJ was investigating Plaid’s $5.3 billion acquisition by Visa, initially announced in January. This week, the agency filed a formal lawsuit, initiating an antitrust suit that, if successful, would cancel the acquisition.

Antitrust considerations have grown dramatically lately due to concerns that the use of data was a new means of illegal market domination for which the Sherman Act of 1890 could hardly have been prepared. Leading technology companies are having to answer questions about how they prioritize content and share consumer information.

Plaid is a widespread mediator, allowing digital systems that deal with financial information to interoperate – the kind of personal knowledge people are sensitive to keeping private.

The DoJ claims that Visa is trying to swallow a potential competitor. But independently, Plaid is facing a series of class actions over the misuse of customer data, which is particularly blatant because most people who send their data through Plaid do not even know that they are doing so.

This may be part of what Visa was looking for.

The Cayman Islands

New legislation in the Cayman Islands has begun to tighten anti-money laundering controls on the country’s crypto market, and especially to increase the registration of local crypto legacy exchanges.

The Cayman Islands legislative body initially began considering a comprehensive review of cryptoactive in April, but the first provisions are only now being implemented.

Like many other British Overseas Territories and Crown dependencies, the Cayman Islands have a long history as a focus of tax evasion, offshoring and money laundering. It seems to be trying to rehabilitate that image, at least a little.

The European Union only took the country off the black list in October, although it has not yet been added to the white list. The US still identifies the jurisdiction as „higher risk“.

The point is that most of these offshore paradises earn a large part of their revenues by hosting financial services that the UK, EU or US would not allow. So how much motivation do the Cayman Islands really have to adopt tougher rules?

Further reading

Chris Giancarlo and Daniel Gorfine of the Digital Dollar Project have their say on a no-money future for MarketWatch.

The Volkov Law Group concludes its analysis of the DoJ encryption application structure last month.

Brookings Techstream analyses the disinformation seen during presidential election week.