Bitcoin

$19 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) seized in dark web drug probe

The U.S. government has seized $19 million worth of BTC from a drug trafficker, who allegedly laundered funds through the cryptocurrency on the original dark web marketplace known as “Silk Road.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the news on Thursday, saying that the trafficker, Hugh Brian Haney, 60, was arrested near Columbus, Ohio. In 2017 and 2018, Haney allegedly transferred bitcoins representing drug proceeds he had earned through Silk Road to an account held at a company involved in the exchange of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He claimed falsely that the source of these bitcoins was from mining.

Haney is charged with one count of concealment money laundering and one count of engaging in a financial transaction in a criminally derived property. The former count carries a maximum jail term of 20 years, while the latter a maximum term of 10 years.

Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agent-in-charge Angel M. Melendez said:

“HSI special agents employed blockchain analytics to uncover and seize bitcoins valued at $19 million and usher Haney out of the dark web shadows to face justice in the Southern District of New York.”

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PayPal’s crypto trading goes live in the US!

Customers will be able to trade up to $20,000 a week, rather than the originally announced $10,000.

On Thursday, PayPal’s crypto trading and payments went live for all eligible customers in the United States.

Per its updated announcement, PayPal ended its waitlist for customers looking to use cryptocurrency in the U.S. Trading features a limit of $20,000 per week, which is double the originally announced $10,000.

PayPal ultimately plans to make crypto payments available at 26 million merchants globally.

A representative said that PayPal will notify U.S. customers about the general availability of crypto services in the coming days.

Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal, noted that the shift to supporting crypto was driven by what he sees as an “inevitable” drift toward virtual currencies.

“The shift to digital forms of currencies is inevitable, bringing with it clear advantages in terms of financial inclusion and access; efficiency, speed and resilience of the payments system; and the ability for governments to disburse funds to citizens quickly.”

Much-anticipated global services are expected to launch at the beginning of 2021, alongside crypto payments on Venmo. PayPal initially announced its plans to integrate crypto three weeks ago. The announcement led to a boost in BTC price.

As part of its crypto services, PayPal received the first conditional Bitlicense from the New York Department of Financial Services, one of the most hawkish sub-national financial regulators in the U.S. Many noted that the terms of PayPal’s crypto services would entail that coins bought on the platform would not be able to leave, likely as part of its compromise with regulators in bringing crypto services to such a wide user base.

Bitcoin

Story from Markets Bitcoin Breaks $15K as Investor Numbers Peak

Bitcoin’s rally is still going as investors continue to accumulate the cryptocurrency, ignoring overbought signals on technical indicators.

Bitcoin (BTC, +8.80%) rose to $15,017.05 at 10:50 a.m. ET (15:50 UTC) on Thursday, its highest level since January 2018.
The price gains happened as global equities rally. European stock indexes are up around 1% on the day and U.S. stock indexes such as the S&P 500 are up over 2%.
The cryptocurrency is now up 7.8% over the past 24 hours and over 108% on a year-to-date basis, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index.
Amid the price rally, the number of “accumulation addresses” has risen to a record high of 519,228, according to data source Glassnode.
The metric has risen by 3% in the past four weeks alongside bitcoin’s rally from $10,500 to $15,000. “It shows retail flow … investors accumulating amid the price rally,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the London-based prime brokerage Bequant told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.
Also, accumulation addresses are up over 9% in 2020, meaning investors have been accumulating coins throughout the year, possibly creating upward pressure on prices.
Notably, the number of bitcoins locked in accumulation addresses has gone up 20% to 2,818,447 BTC this year.
Accumulation addresses are those that have at least two incoming “non-dust” transfers (representing minuscule amounts of bitcoin) and have never spent funds. The metric does not include addresses belonging to miners and exchanges and excludes addresses active more than seven years ago to adjust for lost coins.

glassnode-studio_bitcoin-number-of-accumulation-addresses-1 — Bitcoin accumulation addresses and price

In a sign of confidence in the cryptocurrency’s long-term prospects, investors accumulated coins during the March crash and also during the price drop in September. On both occasions, the price dip was short-lived.
The recent rise in both accumulation addresses and prices indicates the market participants are not worried about a chart-driven sell-off and foresee a continued rise in prices.
Bitcoin’s 14-day relative strength index (RSI) has been indicating overbought conditions since Oct. 20, when bitcoin was trading near $11,700. So far, the technical pullback has remained elusive.

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How To Buy Bitcoin (BTC) With Your Paypal Account Step By Step Guide 2020

There are 26 million merchants that offer PayPal around the world. For those merchants, customers paying in crypto won’t have any impact. Everything will be converted to fiat currency when a transaction is settled.

As part of today’s (October 21st, 2020) move, PayPal has been granted a conditional BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Service. It should be able to launch its crypto service in partnership with Paxos in New York.

PayPal’s crypto service is rolling out progressively. You can head over to PayPal’s website and join the waitlist. Everybody should be able to access crypto-related features within the next month or so. The company has already updated its fees with more details about cryptocurrency exchange fees.

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