Americas

Oct 08 2020

U.S Navy Admiral Criticizes South America’s Pro-Crypto Agenda

Many countries going through challenging times have come to lean on cryptocurrencies for economic support. While experts continue to use this as a testament to cryptocurrencies’ potential, some authorities have decried this operation as being in their way.

Money Laundering and Criminal Activity

Earlier this week, Navy Admiral Craig Faller, the head of the United States Southern Command, explained that the use of cryptocurrencies by several South American economies has made it challenging to spread democracy to their borders.

The Southern Command is one of the unified combatant commands that make up the Department of Defense. Based in Doral, Florida, the Command provides planning, cooperation, and contingency in operations carried out in South America.

Speaking in an interview with the Council of the Americas, Admiral Faller explained that the Southern Command had become wary of Southern American countries rapidly adopting cryptocurrencies. He pointed out that most of these countries tend to be breeding grounds for international criminal organizations, which traffic illegal substances and launder money through their borders.

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“Sixty percent of the cryptocurrency in the world is in this hemisphere, and a lot of that is because folks are trying to avoid regular order in the international financial system,” the Admiral said in part.

The statistic runs against findings from top blockchain analysis firms. In August, a blog post from Chainalysis revealed that the largest crypto market by region is East Asia. The analysis firm published its Cryptocurrency Adoption Index for 2020, reporting that only two of the top ten countries globally by crypto adoption come from South America— third-placed ranked Venezuela and ninth-placed Colombia.

Venezuela Becoming More of a Problem

Admiral Faller particularly singled out Venezuela, explaining that its government appears to be in cahoots with criminal organizations. The country, which has been on a significant crypto adoption spree this year, has long been a thorn in the U.S. government’s side. As Faller explained, the government is studying the impact of these pro-crypto policies on the country. A primary intent of Venezuela’s crypto adoption spree has been to evade U.S.-imposed sanctions. The government has been more open to the prospect of accepting traditional digital assets, and it has tried to increase the adoption of Petro, its oil-backed stablecoin.

Last month, President Nicolas Maduro presented a new bill intending to help the country bypass U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. The bill heavily involved cryptocurrencies, with the government committing to exploring different digital assets in domestic and foreign trade.

“The anti-sanctions bill is the first response […] to give new strength to the use of Petro and other cryptocurrencies, national and global, in domestic and foreign trade, so that all cryptocurrencies of the world, state and private, could be used,” the President said in part.

The National Constituent Assembly, Venezuela’s parliamentarian body, is currently reviewing the bill.

U.S Navy Admiral Criticizes South America’s Pro-Crypto Agenda

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May 02 2018

AMD Sales Forecast Shows New Products Beginning to Deliver

Ian King

Bitcoin Is One of the Few Things Surging in a Sea of Losses

Amid a sea of red in financial markets, Bitcoin is still flashing green.

The biggest cryptocurrency climbed as much as 5.4 percent Tuesday to $9,412, the highest since March 7. Bitcoin has gained 20 percent in the past week and 37 percent in April, on track for its best month since its record-breaking December.

Bitcoin is rebounding from its worse start to a year ever, as it slumped more than 50 percent in the first quarter and plunged to as low as $5,922 from almost $20,000 at the end of last year. The cryptocurrency market is gaining as tax-related selling ends and regulatory-related headlines fade, while Wall Street signals increasing interest in the space.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said Monday that it hired Justin Schmidt as head of digital asset markets to help clients gain exposure to cryptocurrencies, and cryptocurrency-focused hedge funds have continued to open even amid the market slump earlier this year.

Feb 20 2018

Coinbase Says Customers Who Got Wrongly Charged Will Get Refunds

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, said some customers’ credit and debit cards were incorrectly charged and pledged that they won’t be saddled with those costs.

“We have identified a solution and any future purchases will not be affected by this issue,” the San Francisco-based company said Thursday in a post on Twitter. “We will ensure any customer affected by this issue is fully refunded for any incorrect charge. We expect this to happen for customers automatically through their bank.”

The glitch arose as some financial companies changed how they classify card purchases made on crypto exchanges, the company said. Weeks ago, buyers of digital coins began complaining that they were getting hit with “cash advance” fees on their cards — the result of an arcane code that financial firms assigned to the transactions, essentially treating them as akin to buying a traditional currency.

Jan 13 2018

One of the Biggest Crypto Exchanges Goes Dark and Users Are Getting Nervous

One of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges has been down for hours and its clients are starting to freak out.

Kraken went offline at 9 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday for maintenance that was initially scheduled to last two hours, plus an additional two to three hours for withdrawals, according to an announcement on the San Francisco-based company’s website.

"We are still working to resolve the issues that we have identified and our team is working around the clock to ensure a smooth upgrade," according to a status update on Kraken’s website posted seven hours ago. "This means it may still take several hours before we can relaunch the site."

In previous updates, Kraken mentioned it’s working on "unexpected and delicate issues" and assured clients their funds were secure, adding that "Yes, this is our new record for downtime since we launched in 2013. No, we’re not proud of it."

The short history of cryptocurrencies has been rife with hackers and stolen bitcoin, so issues with exchanges are quick to unnerve investors. In the most famous case, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing hundreds of thousands of its clients bitcoins. Less dramatically, popular websites such as Coinbase have frequently crashed or slowed down in the past few months as they’ve been unable to handle the increased traffic coming from the growing number of investors trying to cash in on the crypto boom.

Kraken is one of the exchanges that the CME Group Inc. is using to price the bitcoin futures it introduced last month.

Lack of communication from fledgling companies, delays in withdrawals and transfers, high fees, and the creeping fear of a malicious attack are some of the issues largely retail investors face, and discourage many more from jumping in.

With not even a phone number or e-mail listed on Kraken’s status page, the exchange’s clients vented on Twitter.

A Twitter user with the name of Victor M. said "im seriously considering suing kraken. anyone interested as well?" The Tweet got more than 300 likes. A user with the name North Canton Cab Com tweeted to Kraken saying "due to the length of down time can you at least assure us that our coins and accounts are safe and havent been hacked or stolen please, seems beyond any normal circumstance at this point when people are worried sick!"

Others are resorting to humor, with Twitter user @Subbedeius posting "Kraken is the best platform to avoid panic-selling. It just doesn’t work when sh*t hits the fan."

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