The coins languished in cold storage for four years after being confiscated by authorities during an arrest.
South Korean prosecutors have finally sold a Bitcoin (BTC) haul they confiscated from a criminal in 2017 and it’s worth $10.5 million more than it was at the time of the arrest. The cash has reportedly been deposited in the coffers of the country’s national treasury.
According to reports coming out of the Suwon District Prosecutors Office, this is the first time confiscated Bitcoin has been sold by authorities, and the first time the coins in question have moved since being put into cold storage in 2017.
Originally worth $238,000 at the time of the confiscation, the coins were recently sold for a sum of $10.8 million, marking a 4,400% increase in value in four years. Based on that percentage growth, we can assume that Bitcoin was priced at around $1,300 when the arrest was made, close to April 2017.
With no specific cryptocurrency laws or regulations in place at the time, authorities left the coins in cold storage. In late March, the South Korean government enacted widespread crypto-specific laws for the first time, putting more pressure on exchanges and virtual asset service providers to use real-name trading accounts and to report their activities to Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit. Prosecutors reportedly sold the coins as soon as the laws were put into place on March 25.
South Korea’s determination to regulate the cryptocurrency space stems from revelations regarding crypto’s use by tax evaders, and the evergreen concerns surrounding money-laundering. In January 2022, new laws will come into force that levy a 20% capital gains tax on profits made from cryptocurrency trading.
The National Tax Service of South Korea claimed the number of cryptocurrency investors rose 25% in the past year, resulting in an 800% increase to overall trade volume.
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The market cap of all cryptocurrencies surpassed $1.9 trillion on March 31, according to data from major crypto monitoring resources like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. The total market cap reached as high as $1.99 trillion earlier on the day, hitting a new all-time record.
Total market capitalization since July 2017. Source: CoinMarketCap
Following a subsequent correction, the total crypto market cap has slipped slightly, dropping to $1.89 trillion at the time of writing.
In hitting its new historical high, the total crypto market capitalization has overtaken the market cap of oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco, the world’s second most valuable company by market cap after Apple. According to data from TradingView, Saudi Aramco’s market cap amounts to about 7 trillion Saudi riyals, or $1.86 trillion at the time of writing.
After surpassing the market cap of Google stock at above $1.4 trillion in February, the total crypto market cap has continued flipping the world’s largest companies including Amazon and Microsoft. At publishing time, Amazon and Microsoft’s respective market capitalizations are $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion.
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Blockchain technology is being used to cement confidence in the integrity of new health surveillance measures such as COVID-19 vaccine passports.
South Korea, which has begun its COVID-19 vaccine rollout for residents over 75 years of age, has revealed plans to use blockchain technology to certify forthcoming vaccine passports for immunized citizens.
According to Reuters, Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting that a new mobile app will be used to manage digital proofs of vaccination, and is expected to launch later in April. Blockchain technology will be used to ensure that citizens are not able to forge evidence of having ostensibly received a jab.
“The introduction of a vaccine passport or ‘Green Pass’ will only allow those who have been vaccinated to experience the recovery to their daily lives,” Chung said.
The vaccine passports are also targeted at travelers from overseas, who will be supported by the app and be permitted to enter the country subject to having certifiable proof of having been vaccinated.
Many countries and international blocs, among them China, Israel and the European Union have either already embraced or indicated their readiness to implement vaccine passports domestically and/or to facilitate cross-border travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, are still internally politically divided as to the potential benefits and drawbacks of such a certificatory regime.
Whatever its eventual approach toward vaccine passports will be, the U.K. has, like South Korea, recognized the usefulness of blockchain technology for managing the complex logistical challenges of the vaccination procedure itself. In addition, the Brazilian government has indicated its intent to use the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework for keeping tabs on its own vaccinated citizens.
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No hint of bearish traditions returning to Bitcoin markets this year as 2021 bucks the trend for March to bring serious downside. Will Q2 deliver on expectations?
Bitcoin (BTC) has seen its most successful Q1 in eight years as the Ides of March fail to materialize for hodlers.
Data published by analytics resource Bybt as Q1 2021 came to an end showed that BTC/USD gained more in the first three months of this year than any since 2013.
BTC price gains 103% in Q1
Despite not reclaiming all-time highs before Q2 began, Bitcoin put in a rare performance this March — normally, that month sees negative returns.
BTC/USD monthly returns chart. Source: Bybt
Not only did the largest cryptocurrency rise by nearly 30% this time around, it also posted its highest price in history of $61,700.
Zooming out, Q1 2021 saw only green candles each month for a combined quarterly rise of 103.1%. The last year to surpass this was also 2013 when the price was under $100, with a Q1 performance of 539%.
Anticipation for the next few months is already building. Q2 is traditionally the strongest time of the year for Bitcoin with only two years seeing negative returns, both less than 10%. The target to beat is from 2019, which delivered 159% gains, and is the best Q2 since 2013.
Right on track
Simply studying raw returns data thus fuels a sense that Bitcoin is performing exactly as expected in the year after a block subsidy halving, traditionally its strongest in each four-year halving cycle.
Comparing this cycle to previous ones — and 2021 to 2013 and 2017 — meanwhile shows that regardless of all-time highs, Bitcoin has actually done nothing out of the ordinary.
Uploading the latest version of a chart showing price movements after each halving, quant analyst PlanB put to rest concerns that BTC/USD has gained too quickly in recent months.
"Bitcoin currently in between 2013 and 2017 tracks," he summarized to Twitter followers.
Bitcoin price post-halving comparison vs. stock-to-flow targets. Source: PlanB/ Twitter
As Cointelegraph reported, PlanB's stock-to-flow price models call for an average price of either $100,000 or $288,000 this cycle, with the former now likely too conservative as a top.
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The newly formed investment firm expects to reach a valuation of just under $35 million.
A non-fungible token investment firm is gearing up to raise 10 million pounds ($13.7 million) by listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange Global Market, reports Reuters.
Dubbed NFT Investments, the firm was launched by the co-founders of crypto mining company Argo Blockchain.
Described as an investment vehicle for unique digital artworks, NFT Investments expects the float to result in a company valuation of 25 million pounds ($34.4 million).
The NFT market exploded at the turn of the year, with some digital artworks selling for as much as $70 million dollars in recent weeks. The industry as a whole has now witnessed over half a billion in total volume in a little over three months.
Non-fungible tokens differ from typical cryptocurrency tokens like Bitcoin (BTC) in that they are designed to be unique, and not interchangeable with other tokens of their ilk. This makes them useless as transactional currencies, but valuable as signifiers of sole ownership. To date, works from any number of popular and artistic mediums have been transferred onto the blockchain as NFTs, including but not limited to drawings, paintings, computer-generated art, music and GIFs.
However, not everybody believes the offshoot industry is here to stay in its current form. Noises coming from the mainstream media continue to warn of an impending bubble-burst, while popular figures from within the cryptocurrency space have expressed concern that NFT technology could become just another plaything of rich celebrities.
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Japan has made another step toward adopting cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering regulations developed by the Financial Action Task Force, Cointelegraph Japan reports.
The Japanese Financial Services Agency announced Wednesday that it will adopt the FATF’s travel rule — a set of regulations requiring virtual asset service providers to share transaction data for senders and recipients — by April 2022. “It is required to introduce and implement the travel rule regulations in each country,” the FSA noted.
The FSA requested the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association, a local self-regulatory crypto organization, to prepare for the implementation of the travel rule:
“From the perspective of ensuring the proper and reliable execution of the crypto asset exchange business, we will examine the accurate implementation of the travel rule in terms of technology and operation. We would like the JVCEA to establish a necessary system, so please inform the members of the association.”
As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the FATF introduced the travel rule in 2019, which provides a number of measures to prevent cryptocurrencies from being used for money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Weeknd to drop NFTs on the weekend, a tennis player sold space on her arm as an NFT, Takashi Murakami has released 108 NFT flowers.
Musician Adel Tesfaye, better known as The Weeknd, is set to release his first NFT via Nifty Gateway on Saturday. He follows in the footsteps of other musicians such as Kings of Leon, Grimes, Rico Nasty, and Ja Rule who recognize the ability of NFTs to put the power (and the dollars) back in the hands of artists.
Excited to announce that my first NFT drop is taking place on Saturday at 2:00 pm EST on @niftygateway. The collection will feature new music and limited edition art. I developed the artwork with Strange Loop Studios pic.twitter.com/627BO4JekK
The drop will consist of a one-of-a-kind token featuring the audio track to a song which will not be made available on any other platforms, and two limited edition artworks developed in collaboration with Strange Loop Studios. The tokenized song will be auctioned to the highest bidder, while an unlimited number of each artwork will be sold at a fixed price over a set time-period.
The 'Can't Feel My Face' singer told TechCrunch that NFTs are disrupting the music industry and breaking down barriers between creators and their audiences:
“I’ve always been looking for ways to innovate for fans and shift this archaic music biz and seeing NFT’s allowing creators to be seen and heard more than ever before on their terms is profoundly exciting. I intend to contribute to this movement and can see that very soon it will be weaved into the music industry’s mechanics.”
Tennis player sells arm space
Croatian tennis player Oleksandra Oliynykova is the latest sporting star entering the NFT market. But unlike other athletes who made brief forays into the visual arts industry to make their NFTs, the 20-year old has raised the stakes by auctioning off an NFT conferring its owner lifetime rights to a 15x8 cm area of space on her right arm.
Six days after putting it up for auction on the popular NFT marketplace OpenSea, Croatian tennis player Oleksandra Oliynykova sold exclusive lifetime ownership of part of her right arm for more than $5,000. https://t.co/eliYyoQ7bM
Oliynykova, who ranks 30th in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tour, stipulated that the NFT owner can commission a tattoo on the space at their own cost — or just leave it blank and hope to sell it at a higher price after she plays at Wimbledon or Roland Garros.
The NFT sold for $5,400. However, the owner won’t be able to tattoo anything they want on her arm, with the tennis player stating:
“Though I am very liberal regarding a tattoo image or content, some restrictions apply. First, it should be generally normal, with no extremism of all kinds allowed. Second, as I am a professional athlete, it should NOT contain anything related to gambling, betting etc. That's it.”
The artist announced his dive into NFTs via an Instagram post on March 31, with the release of 108 “Murakami Flowers” which depict 8-bit digital illustrations of flowers, in collaboration with online game authority Yoshihisa Hashimoto.
Murakami noted that his recent focus on digital art and the virtual world came from observing his children play the Nintendo Switch game Animal Crossing with their friends:
“They were watching some fireworks display within the game while talking with their school friends, who they could no longer meet in person, through Zoom, admiring how beautiful it was.“
“I saw the reality of the shifting values when I realized that these children could discern beauty within a virtual world.” he added.
Eulerbeats' not-at-all difficult second album
Not only are visual artists competing with AI robots for NFT sales, but musicians also have to compete with computer-generated algorithms that can produce music which is sold as NFTs.
Ethereum-based Music and Arts project EulerBeats has sold off 25 copies of its second LP “Enigma”, generating $3 million through an auction on OpenSea yesterday.
The project consisted of 25 LPs consisting of 27 tokenized tracks on OpenSea, with the algorithmically generated tracks backed by visuals. This is the project's second release following the launch of their first LP “Genesis”. Both LPs share a common mathematical basis, but provide different art, music, and bonding curve structures.
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