Blockchain
FX Trader Pleads Guilty for Running £20.5 Million Scam
He used the funds for his extravagant lifestyle and also refunded investors who threatened him with legal actions.


Joseph Lewis, a 65-year old foreign exchange trader running a massive international investment scam, has pleaded guilty to his crimes in a United Kingdom court, the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) announced on Friday.
He admitted his involvement in the £20.5 million Ponzi scheme for the past decade and though has duped many people across the globe who were in an illusion that he was investing their funds in foreign exchange trading.
The Most Diverse Audience to Date at FMLS 2020 – Where Finance Meets Innovation
“Lewis netted a huge amount of money from people who came from all walks of life and believed it was a good use of their savings and pensions,” Anamarie Coomansingh of the CPS said in a statement.
“Many of these investors have suffered significant losses because of their involvement with Lewis’ scheme and it is clear that he manipulated a lot of people with the false picture he painted of his ‘trading’.”
Against the investments to the fraudulent scheme, the clients received fake monthly reports showing that their funds are accumulating extensive returns from trading. This also encouraged them to invest more and even recommend Lewis’ services to “family and friends.”
Suggested articles
Elections and Markets: An Unbreakable BondGo to article >>
Lewis transferred the funds to his personal accounts and spend them in “funding his lifestyle, paying back early investors in his scheme and making risky investments which failed.”
Rise of conscience?
He surrendered himself to the police after sending an email to his clients, admitting that he did not invest any of the funds since 2009. Today, he pleaded guilty to 19 fraud offenses.
“Lewis is an extremely manipulative and dishonest man,” Detective Sergeant Lee Nelson, from the City of London Police, added. “He knew his victims were investing money to save towards retirement or to make a better life for their young family, and instead he used their money to fund his own extravagant lifestyle.”
The authorities are now trying to identify Lewis’s assets to compensate the victims.
Investment frauds like this are rampant all over the world and regulators are actively warning investors to verify the services beforehand. Finance Magnates earlier reported about a victim of such fraud who lost over half-a-million dollars.
Source: https://www.financemagnates.com/forex/fx-trader-pleads-guilty-for-running-20-5-million-scam/
Blockchain
The Countdown: Cardano (ADA) to Reach Full Decentralization on March 31st


Less than a year after launching its IOHK-owned network of federated nodes, Cardano is on schedule to reach full decentralization at the end of March 2021. At that point, the already established network of over 1,800 community pools will be responsible for producing all new blocks.
Cardano Goes for Full Decentralization
With the approaching so-called D (=0) day, IOHK, the company behind the popular blockchain project Cardano, published a post highlighting the latest milestone in its development.
Cardano is on track to get out of the realm of centralization in less than a month. The post explained that upon the release of the Shelley update in July 2020, the developers built the network in a way that every block was produced by IOHK’s network of federated nodes.
This caused some confusion within the cryptocurrency community as such an approach was the “antithesis of decentralization.” However, the statement justified this somewhat controversial decision with enhanced security – “a wise approach for the near term while the stake pool operator (SPO) network got up and running.”
Furthermore, Cardano’s developers built in an automatic readjustment process, which reduced the parameter that governs what percentage of transactions are processed by the genesis nodes (referred to as d) at a rate of 0.02 per epoch. This means an increase by 2% in community block production every five days.
Thus, the community received a more significant role in block production over time, which led to the current situation – only 12% of blocks are produced by federated nodes. The number will continue to gradually decrease until it reached zero (also known as D=0 Day) on March 31st.
Upon doing so, the network will become “fully decentralized,” as “D=0 pushes power to the edges.”
ADA Price Update
While the Cardano community is patiently anticipating the D=0 day, the native cryptocurrency has been on a roll since the start of the year, despite the recent retracements.
ADA entered 2020 at about $0,18 before it skyrocketed to a new all-time high just shy of $1.5. Following this 730% surge, the asset retraced slightly intact with last week’s market crash but has remained well above the $1 tag.
Naturally, ADA’s price surge impacted the market capitalization as well. As such, ADA surpassed other altcoins like Binance Coin and Ripple and is currently the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO35 code to get 35% free bonus on any deposit up to 1 BTC.
Checkout PrimeXBT
Trade with the Official CFD Partners of AC Milan
The Easiest Way to Way To Trade Crypto.
Source: https://cryptopotato.com/the-countdown-cardano-ada-to-reach-full-decentralization-on-march-31st/
Blockchain
Ripple’s CEO: SEC Lawsuit Did Not Affect Business in Asia Pacific


Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Reuters in an interview today that the company is still conducting and growing its business in the Asia Pacific region despite the SEC legal case against Ripple and its executives.
The last four months have been some of the toughest for Ripple after the company was slammed with a $1.3 billion lawsuit by the United States Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). The regulator alleged that Ripple and its executives, including Garlinghouse, conducted an unregistered securities offering using XRP.
News of the lawsuit spurred panic, and some major crypto exchanges offering services to U.S. clients were quick to delist XRP from their platforms. Ripple’s partner Moneygram also pulled the brakes on its alliance with the company following the SEC fiasco.
The price of XRP suffered severely, and the once-third-largest cryptocurrency by market cap now ranks seventh on CoinMarketCap.
No Fallout In Asia
Despite the company’s mishap in the United States, Garlinghouse noted that Ripple has continued its operation without hassle across Asia, especially Japan, thanks to the regulatory clarity in the region.
“It (the lawsuit) has hindered activity in the United States, but it has not really impacted what’s going on for us in Asia Pacific. We have been able to continue to grow the business in Asia and Japan because we’ve had regulatory clarity in those markets,” Ripple’s CEO said during the interview.
Garlinghouse believes the lack of a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies in the United States is a hindrance to innovation and the SEC lawsuit is an attack on all crypto. However, he said that Ripple will not let the regulator bully the industry.
An Attack On All
The CEO, alongside Ripple’s co-founder Chris Larsen, recently filed two separate motions, calling for the dismissal of the lawsuit against them and the company.
Garlinghouse described the SEC action as a “regulatory overreach.” Ripple and its executive want US regulators to treat XRP as a virtual currency just like Bitcoin and Ether, but the SEC continues to insist that it is a security.
With a settlement very unlikely at this point, both parties have agreed to August 16, 2021, as the discovery phase deadline, during which they will present all evidence and argument.
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter CRYPTOPOTATO35 code to get 35% free bonus on any deposit up to 1 BTC.
Checkout PrimeXBT
Trade with the Official CFD Partners of AC Milan
The Easiest Way to Way To Trade Crypto.
Source: https://cryptopotato.com/ripples-ceo-sec-lawsuit-did-not-affect-business-in-asia-pacific/
Blockchain
Bitfury’s US Bitcoin mining subsidiary to go public via $2B SPAC merger


Cipher Mining Technologies Inc. a subsidiary of blockchain development firm Bitfury has inked a $2 billion merger deal with Nasdaq-listed Good Works Acquisition Corp — a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Both companies have entered into a business combination agreement.
According to a press release issued on Friday the merger will see Bitfury’s U.S. Bitcoin (BTC) mining enterprise become a publicly-listed company under the banner Cipher Mining Inc.
In addition to the combined $2 billion valuation for Cipher, investors like Morgan Stanley-backed Counterpoint Group and Fidelity Management and Research company will also lead a $425 million funding round.
This additional cash influx will proceed via a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, funding round. Bitfury will also provide a $50 million investment-in-kind to add to the $170 million left over from the October 2020 Good Works initial public offering, thus setting the combined company’s gross cash holdings at $595 million.
Commenting on the merger, Cipher Mining CEO Tyler Page remarked that the deal was a significant step in the emergence of properly capitalized Bitcoin mining enterprises, adding:
“With this transaction, we will be able to combine the formidable skill sets and technologies developed by Bitfury Group over the past 10 years with what we believe will be a leadership position on the global cost curve, and thereby create a true leader in the Bitcoin mining industry.”
With the merger expected to close in Q2 2021, Cipher is looking to achieve a 745 megawatts mining capacity by end of 2025. The company says it hopes to cross the 445 MW milestone between the end of 2021 and Q2 2022.
Cipher is the latest Bitcoin mining establishment to pursue a public listing albeit via a merger with a SPAC entity. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Australian green energy Bitcoin mining outfit Iris Energy is set for a $39 million IPO in the summer.
With designs towards 745 MW in mining capacity, Cipher is also the latest example of the expanding Bitcoin mining outlay in North America. While China still dominates the BTC hash rate distribution, firms in the U.S. and Canada are reportedly increasing their inventory in the quest to dilute China’s control of the Bitcoin mining arena.
Meanwhile, Chinese miners are coming under significant regulatory pressure from municipal authorities. Earlier in March, reports emerged of crypto miners planning to exit Inner Mongolia amid energy consumption concerns.
Checkout PrimeXBT
Trade with the Official CFD Partners of AC Milan
The Easiest Way to Way To Trade Crypto.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitfury-s-us-bitcoin-mining-subsidiary-to-go-public-via-2b-spac-merger
-
Blockchain1 week ago
Gemini collaborates with The Giving Block and others, adds donations option
-
Blockchain5 days ago
Google Finance adds dedicated ‘crypto’ tab featuring Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin
-
Blockchain4 days ago
Why Mark Cuban is looking forward to Ethereum’s use cases
-
Blockchain2 days ago
Amplifying Her Voice
-
Blockchain1 week ago
NextGen Blockchain Platforms Self-Organize to Win Government Contracts
-
Blockchain1 week ago
Optimized Ethereum Mining Settings for Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti, RTX 3070, RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 GPUs
-
Blockchain5 days ago
NBA Top Shot leads NFT explosion with $230M in sales
-
Blockchain6 days ago
Inverse Finance seizes tokens, ships code: Launches stablecoin lending protocol