Countinghouse(CHT)

Wallets containing bitcoin seized by the U.S. government in the notorious Bitfinex hack – later leading to guilty pleas for Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather "Razzlekhan" Morgan – have suddenly become active.

Ilya Lichtenstein, one of the crypto industry's most high-stakes criminals, is now helping federal prosecutors in their case against Bitcoin Fog, one of the mixing services he said he'd used to conceal assets.

US appeals court confirms forfeiture of 69,370 BTC linked to Ross Ulbricht's Silk Road, marking the end of its legal battle.

Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs were returned to their owners after Yuga Labs' Greg Solano and Boring Security DAO paid a bounty.

A Web3 security firm, Boring Security, has announced that it has successfully recovered 36 Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and 18 Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs.

On November 20, the cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Global, based in Liechtenstein, abruptly announced that it would cease all its operations worldwide starting Monday, December 4, 2023. According to the statement posted on its website, Bittrex Global will halt all trading activities on its platform and will only allow fund withdrawals after December 4, urging users […]

The company's decision comes amid the ongoing NFT bear market.

Liechtenstein-based cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Global has announced that it will suspend all operations by the 4th of December as it prepares to shut down following a bruising battle with the SEC.

The developer behind the Mutant Ape Planet non-fungible token (NFT) collection – a knockoff of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs – pleaded guilty on Tuesday to defrauding buyers in a rug pull that netted almost $3 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s official Twitter account said an investigation confirmed suspicions that UV lights were the likely cause of the reported eye and skin issues suffered by some attendees.

Attendees of a ApeFest, an event hosted by Bored Ape Yacht Club creators Yuga Labs, have been receiving medical care after reporting blurred vision and burning eyes.

Yuga Labs, a firm behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, has completed restructuring to focus on its upcoming metaverse project Otherside.

Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, and LSLTTT Holdings Inc, creator of the Pudgy Penguins collection, are among many withholding some of their collections.

Silk Road, a darknet marketplace, revolutionized illicit trade with Bitcoin. $1.2 billion in sales, 9.5 million Bitcoin exchanged.

Ross Ulbricht the founder of the first “modern darknet market” has reached the 10-year mark of his double life sentence in prison after having his laptop seized by the FBI in 2013.

A community member highlights the drastic shift in mainstream media narrative, sharing a previous article promoting the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.

To protect against routing attacks in the Lightning Network, utilize watchtowers, verify channel state changes, and prioritize well-established payment channels.

The family office is investing through its Dunhill Ventures subsidiary into Lichtenstein-regulated VC firm Mocha Ventures.

A new court filing lists a multimillion-dollar yacht purchased for Trabucco as a business expense.

The payment to the American Yacht Group was disclosed under the category of payments benefiting any insider within one year prior to the crypto exchange collapse.

New Crypto Breakthrough in Amsterdam and Political Support for Bitcoin It is not every day that interesting events or conferences are held in the crypto market, and therefore it is especially important to talk about them. To ensure that all interested parties receive the necessary information in a timely manner. That is why I would like to announce a groundbreakingevent this fall - the Bitcoin Amsterdam conference on October 12-14 in the capital of the Netherlands. Recognizing the importance and significance of the event, the media partner of the event will be the well-knownBitcoin Magazine, whose Ukrainian franchise I am developing. Our readers will receive prompt information about the conference, its participants, and the topics discussed. I have no doubt that it will be interesting and professional, as always with Bitcoin Magazine. We will see a lot of interesting speakers who, I am sure, will be able to attract both professionals and those who are just discovering the crypto market. The event is expected to feature speeches by Blockstream co-founder and CEO Adam Beck, Paxful CEO Ray Youssef, Bitrefill CEO Sergey Kotlyar, White Rock Management CEO Andy Long, and even Prince Filip Karageorgovich of Serbia. Of course, this is not a complete list, and there will be many authoritative and interesting personalities. I think that especially those present will be interested in the founder of the Bitcoin fraction and member of the Libertarian Party of the Netherlands Tom van Lamoyen, who has already confirmed his participation on his page in X (former Twitter). In the parliament of his country, he deals with issues of economy, finance, taxation and supports the development of the crypto market, and he is considered a serious crypto activist. “Bitcoin is digital libertarianism,” Lamoyen stresses. The Libertaire Partij (LP) is not a newcomer to politics (it has been in existence for 30 years) and advocates clear values that it articulates: to create "a free world, a world in which no one is forced to sacrifice his life or property for the benefit of others". In 2014, the LP became the first political party in the Netherlands to adopt and support Bitcoin. I am sure that Tom van Lamoyen will share with the participants of Bitcoin Amsterdam interesting experience and ideas for the future. There is a growing interest in cryptocurrencies in Europe, especially in the Netherlands. In 2023, CoinGecko analysts conducted an interesting survey and published a rating of the European states that are most interested in digital assets. The Netherlands, which accounted for 7.3% of such interest, ranked second after the United Kingdom. Analysts reported that most often the Dutch choose such coins - Fuse, Bone ShibaSwap and Cellframe. In this country, full legalization of crypto has not yet passed, but the Central Bank of the Netherlands (DNB) has already issued work permits to 36 crypto companies. Last month, for example, it was received by Crypto.com, and before that – Coinbase Europe, eToro, Bitstamp. In the Netherlands, crypto activists are very strong, and we see the results of their work. There are very interesting projects. For example, last year it became known about a giant greenhouse near Rotterdam, which is heated by the heat emitted in the process of mining Bitcoin - it does not go to waste, as in other farms. Mining servers are powered by solar panels on the roof. The result is a carbon-neutral operation that performs an important environmental function and allows you to reduce costs. The initiative is called Bitcoin Bloem, and I’m sure it will inspire many to other interesting projects. I think Tom van Lamoyen will be able to share his experiences and talk about other initiatives in his country and abroad. It is not only pleasant, but also very useful when politicians are interested in the crypto market and try to help its development. There are more and more examples of this around the world. In particular, Daniel Rish, Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Liechtenstein, has repeatedly stated the need for full legalization of Bitcoin in his country, and promised that cryptocurrency will be used to pay for public services. He also allowed investing in Bitcoin part of the foreign currency reserve of the state, which now amounts to 2.2 billion Swiss francs (2.5-year state budget of Liechtenstein). In Poland, for example, Yaroslav Gowin from the center-right Accord party, formerly known as Poland Together, is a fan of cryptocurrencies. It was part of the ruling coalition United Right from 2015 to 2021. For most of this period, Gowin was Deputy Prime Minister as well as a member of parliament, and emphasized the potential of cryptocurrency and other financial innovations. We should not forget about the American Cynthia Loummis– a US Senator from Wyoming, with whom I had the honour to discuss the prospects for the industry development and who has long supported the idea of cryptocurrencies. She bought her first Bitcoin back in 2013. Many times, shesupported laws expanding the use of cryptocurrency in the United States and two years ago, shelaunched the Senate Financial Innovation Group. Now, she is member of the Senate Banking Committee. A few days ago, from the report of the Office of Government Ethics it became known that her epic Republican colleague and ex-president of the United States Donald Trump keeps up to $500 thousand in Ethereum wallet. Earlier, the media reported that Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (nephew of the 35th American president) bought 14 bitcoins for his children — 2 each. He is a very progressive politician, whom many openly call a crypto activist after his impressive speech at the crypto conference in Miami in May 2023 at The Miami Beach Convention Center. Kennedy publicly called Bitcoin a hard currency and put it on a par with silver, gold, and platinum, noting that it is able to support the US dollar, and open a new stage of financial stability of the world and prosperity of the country. The support of politicians is very important, as it contributes to the development of the crypto market and its widespread legalization. I think Robert F. Kennedy will be right, and eventually this support will help save the classical financial market as well. Serhiy Tron is an investor and the founder of White Rock Management. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Friend.Tech’s 24-hour fee jump places the social app in the top three projects for fee generation, only behind Ethereum and Lido, according to data from DeFiLlama. Let’s find out more. Ethereum According to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ark Invest and 21Shares are teaming up to apply for an Ethereum Futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp announced it would end Ethereum (ETH) staking services to its US customers as of September 25 due to the rigid US regulatory environment. According to a post by Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero on August 23, the decentralized social media protocol is migrating to OP Mainnet. DeFi Shiba Inu's much-anticipated Shibarium network, a layer-2 solution built on Ethereum, is gearing up for a fresh launch after encountering initial setbacks. Blockchain oracle provider API3 has announced that it is launching a new data feed service suite for Polygon zkEVM, designed from a new push oracle solution that's centered around first-party architecture. The dYdX foundation has published a list of guidelines and requirements that validators and stakers must comply with to ensure maximum user protection. Altcoins The PEPE token registered a sharp decline in price after millions of meme tokens flooded prominent crypto exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and OKX. A phishing site has seized control of the Terra website, leading the site developers to sound the alarm and eventually freeze the Terra.money website. The social app Friend.tech has registered a big increase in protocol fees, generating fees in excess of $1.4 million in a 24-hour period. The team has vehemently denied a report claiming the personal data of over 100,000 users had been leaked. Technology Yuga Labs, the creators of the hugely popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), announced they will remove support for OpenSea’s Seaport Protocol from February 2024. Business Leading e-commerce platform Shopify will now allow users to make USDC payments thanks to its recent integration of the Solana Pay app. Considering the complexity of the ever-evolving crypto market, the trading platform Bitget has introduced the Bitget Protection Fund. Dropbox has moved its unlimited storage plan to a metered one in order to stop crypto miners’ “uneven usage.” Binance, the renowned global crypto exchange, has expanded its footprint by introducing its payment solution, Binance Pay, to the Brazilian market. Binance is pulling its horns in Latin America and the Middle East by withdrawing its crypto payment credit card. Coinbase and Circle, the two entities behind USD Coin (USDC), have announced new terms that would change the governance and funding of the USDC stablecoin. Regulation The SEC has charged a former corrections officer from New Jersey for his role in a bizarre cryptocurrency scam. The FBI has spotlighted six Bitcoin wallets believed to have connections with North Korea for their alleged ties to activities that breach US sanctions. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven new charges brought against him in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. US District Judge Robert Pitman has dismissed an appeal filed by six Tornado Cash users who sought to lift sanctions placed on the controversial cryptocurrency mixer. Security Magnate Finance, a lending and borrowing protocol that operates on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base, has apparently orchestrated a rug pull, stealing millions of dollars from users of the protocol. Liquidity protocol Balancer has disclosed that it has discovered a critical vulnerability that has impacted over 100 of its v2 pools spread across eight different blockchains. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Friend.Tech’s 24-hour fee jump places the social app in the top three projects for fee generation, only behind Ethereum and Lido, according to data from DeFiLlama. Let’s find out more. Ethereum According to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ark Invest and 21Shares are teaming up to apply for an Ethereum Futures Exchange Traded Fund (ETF). Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp announced it would end Ethereum (ETH) staking services to its US customers as of September 25 due to the rigid US regulatory environment. According to a post by Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero on August 23, the decentralized social media protocol is migrating to OP Mainnet. DeFi Shiba Inu's much-anticipated Shibarium network, a layer-2 solution built on Ethereum, is gearing up for a fresh launch after encountering initial setbacks. Blockchain oracle provider API3 has announced that it is launching a new data feed service suite for Polygon zkEVM, designed from a new push oracle solution that's centered around first-party architecture. The dYdX foundation has published a list of guidelines and requirements that validators and stakers must comply with to ensure maximum user protection. Altcoins The PEPE token registered a sharp decline in price after millions of meme tokens flooded prominent crypto exchanges such as Binance, Bybit, and OKX. A phishing site has seized control of the Terra website, leading the site developers to sound the alarm and eventually freeze the Terra.money website. The social app Friend.tech has registered a big increase in protocol fees, generating fees in excess of $1.4 million in a 24-hour period. The team has vehemently denied a report claiming the personal data of over 100,000 users had been leaked. Technology Yuga Labs, the creators of the hugely popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), announced they will remove support for OpenSea’s Seaport Protocol from February 2024. Business Leading e-commerce platform Shopify will now allow users to make USDC payments thanks to its recent integration of the Solana Pay app. Considering the complexity of the ever-evolving crypto market, the trading platform Bitget has introduced the Bitget Protection Fund. Dropbox has moved its unlimited storage plan to a metered one in order to stop crypto miners’ “uneven usage.” Binance, the renowned global crypto exchange, has expanded its footprint by introducing its payment solution, Binance Pay, to the Brazilian market. Binance is pulling its horns in Latin America and the Middle East by withdrawing its crypto payment credit card. Coinbase and Circle, the two entities behind USD Coin (USDC), have announced new terms that would change the governance and funding of the USDC stablecoin. Regulation The SEC has charged a former corrections officer from New Jersey for his role in a bizarre cryptocurrency scam. The FBI has spotlighted six Bitcoin wallets believed to have connections with North Korea for their alleged ties to activities that breach US sanctions. Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven new charges brought against him in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. US District Judge Robert Pitman has dismissed an appeal filed by six Tornado Cash users who sought to lift sanctions placed on the controversial cryptocurrency mixer. Security Magnate Finance, a lending and borrowing protocol that operates on the Ethereum Layer-2 network Base, has apparently orchestrated a rug pull, stealing millions of dollars from users of the protocol. Liquidity protocol Balancer has disclosed that it has discovered a critical vulnerability that has impacted over 100 of its v2 pools spread across eight different blockchains. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

In an exciting merger of tradition and technology, Philatelie Liechtenstein, part of Liechtenstein’s official postal service, has debuted an NFT postage stamp infused with the artistry of internationally acclaimed neo-pop artist, Romero Britto. Launched on March 29, 2023, this innovation sets a new benchmark for both philately and the digital art realm. Pop-art, stamps, and blockchain Liechtenstein's foray into the world of blockchain technology began as early as 2021, but this recent collaboration with Britto, known for his distinctive public art installations worldwide, including Hyde Park, London, and John F. Kennedy Airport, New York, has undoubtedly generated new attention in the world of post stamps. "We are proud to have been issuing stamps for 111 years now. The NFTs were created through the digital twin of a painting by Romero Britto, now on display in the Liechtenstein National Museum," says Roland Seger, CEO at LiechtensteinischePost AG. Drawing from his personal journey, Britto toldCryptoDaily that, "As art ambassador for the Philately Liechtenstein art edition, things have come full circle for me. When I was a kid inBrazil, I couldn't travel. But stamps let me dream. Through them, I could travel the world in my mind and get to faraway places." The NFT Art Edition stands out in the novel arena of crypto-based stamps not just due to its blend of tradition and innovation but also because of its message of unity. "My art, the painting for the philately and the design of the NFT stamps are meant to express joy of life. This style conveys my philosophy: a visual language of happiness! The work in the Liechtenstein National Museum stands not only for friendship, but also for the connection between tradition and the digital world. Mushrooms (through their roots) are the best-connected creatures in our world - just as we are digitally on the internet today," Britto reflected. Each stamp, built on Ethereum’s ERC-721 standard, includes a unique SQR code, linking directly to its corresponding NFT on the Ethereum blockchain. This guarantees transparency and authenticity for collectors. Additional physical perks include gold foil embossed packaging and a certificate of authenticity. Britto further emphasized the democratizing power of NFTs, saying, "Art is for everyone. We should share love and positivity with each other. With my art, I want to convey this attitude. The NFTs allow everyone to participate in the art world. Through this unique project, everyone gets access to a world that was previously only available to a fewpeople.." A growing field As Liechtenstein's philately dives headfirst into the digital age, their initiatives not only revolutionize notions of authenticity and ownership but also underscore their commitment to evolving while paying homage to a century-old tradition. And notably, they’re not the only players in their field to realize the potential of NFTs. Since the thoughtleader’s first venture into blockchain back in 2021, the release of Stamp 4.0, the world’s first NFT stamp, other postage services in Europe have caught on to the idea. As Cointelegraph reported, the Dutch and Austrian postage services have followed suit and released their own blockchain-based stamps to the public in Fall 2022. The future of philately seems promising, with a perfect blend of the past, present, and future, creating an inviting space for both traditional stamp enthusiasts and new-age collectors. As the world continues to become more digitalized, it seems fair to assume that collectors and even consumers will be seeing more post services leverage blockchain technology. It's even conceivable that postal services will abandon the old-fashioned physical stamps and soon rely entirely on their NFT counterparts for domestic and international mail. One thing is for sure: thanks to collaborations like these, Philatelie Liechtenstein ensures its revered position in philatelic history for ages to come. Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.