News – Page 59

Sierra Leone Busts a $200 Million Smart City Scam

Olufunmilade Adeyemi was arrested in Ghana and extradited to his native Nigeria to face justice for allegedly stealing tens of thousands of dollars in sales of fictitious property. He somehow slalomed his way out of the process and four years later miraculously appeared in Sierra Leone posing as Harvard-educated business visionary Professor Alex O Phillips. He claimed to have a genius plan to kickstart the country’s struggling economy with a US$200 million smart city. Named the Motherland City, the site would contain 10,000 housing units and all the imaginable facilities ranging from wind turbines and a ferry terminal to a waterpark and the biggest wax museum in Africa.

Source: Written by Josef Skrdlik, 2023-03-17; https://www.occrp.org/en/daily//en/daily/17422-sierra-leone-busts-a-200-million-smart-city-scam

Credit Suisse In Bed With Sanctioned Chinese Entities

The bank’s sale to USB comes shortly after it reported its largest annual loss since the 2008 financial crisis. Its Hong Kong-based arm, Credit Suisse Securities, invests in listed Chinese entities, some of which are state-owned. Data from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange reveals the bank’s investments in sanctioned entities and companies connected to sanctioned entities such as China Railway Construction (CRRC) The Swiss banking giant is a significant shareholder in CRRC, which has been sanctioned by the Chinese government.

Source: Written by Khadija Sharife, 2023-03-22; https://www.occrp.org/en/daily//en/daily/17435-credit-suisse-in-bed-with-sanctioned-chinese-entities

Experts Warn of Political Interference After Thai Court Quashed Senator’s Arrest Warrant

Seven-page testimony from Royal Thai Police Lt Col Manapong Wongpiwat was made to a member of the Judicial Commission. It describes how he was allegedly pressed into revoking the arrest warrant he had requested for Senator Upakit Pachariyangkun. The director of the Criminal Court reportedly said he was under pressure from an unnamed person to cancel the warrant. The leaked testimony confirms detailsin October, and provides a blow-by-blow account of the backroom machinations that allowed upakit to escape arrest.

Source: Written by Prachatai and OCCRP, 2023-03-21; https://www.occrp.org/en/daily//en/daily/17429-experts-warn-of-political-interference-after-thai-court-quashed-senator-s-arrest-warrant

FDIC Denies That Potential Signature Buyers Must Give Up Crypto

Signature Bank was one of the two main banks providing financial services to crypto platforms. The bank was majorly invested in crypto, with over a quarter of all deposits coming from the industry. The news dealt a blow to many mainstays of the crypto industry, de-pegging Circle’s USDC and causing uncertainty for Coinbase and Paxos, who had significant assets stashed away at Signature Bank. U.S. authorities decided over the weekend to place Signature Bank in , informing its leadership mere hours before the public announcement was made.

Source: Jordan Lyanchev, 2023-03-18; https://cryptopotato.com/fdic-denies-that-potential-signature-buyers-must-give-up-crypto/

Bitcoin Dominance Rises to 9-Month High as Altcoins Retrace (Weekend Watch)

Most of the alts have slumped today, while BTC maintains above $27,000. ATOM, LDO, and APT are among the most substantial losers today, dropping by up to 7%. The US banking crisis, in which three banks were closed within days, and the subsequent bailout speculations as well as US Fed $300 billion to certain banking institutions, pushed BTC north this week. The asset stood just inches above $20,000 last Sunday but started marching on as the working week began.

Source: Jordan Lyanchev, 2023-03-20; https://cryptopotato.com/bitcoin-dominance-rises-to-9-month-high-as-altcoins-retrace-weekend-watch/

Tokenization Could Drive Efficiencies in Capital Markets: BlackRock CEO

Larry Fink, chief executive officer of the world’s largest asset management company BlackRock, believes tokenizing asset classes such as stocks and bonds could foster efficiency in capital markets. The CEO disclosed that fascinating developments are ongoing in the nascent industry beyond the hype and obsession with cryptocurrencies. Despite the of major crypto entities like FTX, digital payments are rapidly advancing. Fink believes that innovative applications for the asset management industry could emerge as the digital space. “For the asset Management industry, we believe the operational potential of some of the underlying technologies i’m looking at is huge,” he said.

Source: Mandy Williams, 2023-03-18; https://cryptopotato.com/tokenization-could-drive-efficiencies-in-capital-markets-blackrock-ceo/

Crypto Price Analysis Mar-17: ETH, XRP, ADA, BNB, DOT

This week, the market sentiment completely shifted, with bulls taking full control of the price action. ETH rallied by 21%, making it the best performer on our list. While most of the market is rallying, XRP appears to be lagging behind, registering only a 1% increase. This is rather surprising, considering the bullish sentiment across the board. As XRP is a momentum coin, it could move higher and test the key resistance levels found at $1,800 and $2,000.

Source: Duo Nine, 2023-03-18; https://cryptopotato.com/crypto-price-analysis-mar-17-eth-xrp-ada-bnb-dot/

Crypto Bank Anchorage Digital to Lay Off 20% of its Workforce

Anchorage Digital announced the layoff of 20% of its workers due to the crypto winter and regulatory uncertainty in the US. This is the latest development in a series of events that have affected both the banking and the crypto industry as a whole. 2023 has been marked by the closures of three major banks —and the second-largest — along with a continuation of the Crypto winter that has brought a lot of pain in the whole blockchain ecosystem, from crypto native businesses like Dapper Labs and Huobi to real behemoths such as Meta.

Source: Felix Mollen, 2023-03-16; https://cryptopotato.com/crypto-bank-anchorage-digital-to-lay-off-20-of-its-workforce/

Here’s the Final Resistance for BTC Before a Potential Rally to $30K (Bitcoin Price Analysis)

Bitcoin’s recent price spikes underline the demand and confidence in the crypto market. This resulted in a significant surge in many cryptocurrencies. However, the price still faces a critical resistance level of $25K before calling the bear market over. The same structure is occurring now; after a massive downtrend, declining to the $15K level, the market experienced a series of capitulation events. It has recently begun an uptrend, surpassing many essential resistance levels. Despite the portrayed resemblances, it might be soon to call it a bull market as it re-emerges.

Source: CryptoVizArt, 2023-02-20; https://cryptopotato.com/heres-the-final-resistance-before-a-potential-rally-to-30k-for-btc-bitcoin-price-analysis/

Binance NFT Announces Integration With Polygon Network

Binance’s non-fungible token arm – Binance NFT – has announced adding support for the Polygon network on March 8th. The integration will enable users to explore and trade a wider variety of NFTs across multiple blockchains. This includes – BNB Smart Chain (BSC), Ethereum (ETH) network, as well as Polygon from their Binance accounts. “Users can report N FTs and NFT collections that potentially violate Binance. NFT’s Minting Rules and Terms of Service to B finance NFT. The moderation team will actively investigate any user report of fraudulent or malicious content before taking the necessary action”

Source: Chayanika Deka, 2023-03-09; https://cryptopotato.com/binance-nft-announces-integration-with-polygon-network/

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