Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, and the Future of Global Finance

#654
#654
Colonial Pipeline hackers received $90M in ransom from dozens of victims, report finds

The hackers behind the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, DarkSide, received $90 million in bitcoin ransom payments over the past nine months from dozens of online victims before shutting down last week, according to new research released Tuesday.

The average amount that DarkSide received from 47 online victims in the past year was approximately $1.9 million, according to British blockchain analytics firm Elliptic.

Colonial Pipeline hackers received $90M in ransom from dozens of victims, report finds
 
#656
#656
REVEALED: $90 MILLION was paid in Bitcoin Ransoms after 99 Firms including Guess and Toshiba were targeted by DarkSide hackers who closed the Colonial Pipeline

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said DarkSide's Bitcoin wallet received millions of dollars worth of ransom payments in the nine months between October last year and last week when the wallet shut down.

Dark web intelligence firm DarkTracer has identified 99 organizations that were infected with Darkside including fashion label Guess and car firm Toshiba. It is not clear which companies paid the hackers ransom money.

Elliptic said on Friday it had identified the Bitcoin wallet used by DarkSide to collect ransom payments from victims of its cyber attacks and that it showed a 75 Bitcoin payment had been made by Colonial Pipeline on May 8.

Most ransom money paid to DarkSide was then sent to cryptoasset exchanges, reported Elliptic.

This is where the cryptocurrency can be swapped for standard currencies such as US dollars.

While many cryptoasset exchanges are legal and comply with regulations around money laundering, Elliptic found that most of DarkSide's payments were sent to exchanges where regulations are not enforced.

Elliptic said DarkSide's bitcoin wallet contained $5.3 million worth of Bitcoin last week before its wallet was emptied and it ceased operations.

It is not clear if the hackers drained the funds or if it was seized by the US government.

$90M was paid in ransoms after 99 firms were targeted by DarkSide who closed Colonial Pipeline | Daily Mail Online
 
#657
#657
Franklin Pierce said:
REVEALED: $90 MILLION was paid in Bitcoin Ransoms after 99 Firms including Guess and Toshiba were targeted by DarkSide hackers who closed the Colonial Pipeline

Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said DarkSide's Bitcoin wallet received millions of dollars worth of ransom payments in the nine months between October last year and last week when the wallet shut down.

Dark web intelligence firm DarkTracer has identified 99 organizations that were infected with Darkside including fashion label Guess and car firm Toshiba. It is not clear which companies paid the hackers ransom money.

Elliptic said on Friday it had identified the Bitcoin wallet used by DarkSide to collect ransom payments from victims of its cyber attacks and that it showed a 75 Bitcoin payment had been made by Colonial Pipeline on May 8.

Most ransom money paid to DarkSide was then sent to cryptoasset exchanges, reported Elliptic.

This is where the cryptocurrency can be swapped for standard currencies such as US dollars.

While many cryptoasset exchanges are legal and comply with regulations around money laundering, Elliptic found that most of DarkSide's payments were sent to exchanges where regulations are not enforced.

Elliptic said DarkSide's bitcoin wallet contained $5.3 million worth of Bitcoin last week before its wallet was emptied and it ceased operations.

It is not clear if the hackers drained the funds or if it was seized by the US government.

$90M was paid in ransoms after 99 firms were targeted by DarkSide who closed Colonial Pipeline | Daily Mail Online
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The last time the US seized assets, some fool returned pallets of cash in the dead of night to a terrorist country. The idiot probably added interest, too.
 
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#663
#663
Velo Vol said:
That shows it's been volatile for years.
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No sane person would ever trade very long in a horizontal market because in this pie in the sky fruit loop printing press economy inflation will eat you alive the longer you hold in this scenario.

On that note, the more volatile the market the better the profits.

A great example will be all the investors that buy into this fear and make huge profits in the weeks and months ahead.
 
#666
#666
What exchange do you guys use? I know coinbase is a popular one, but they want a photo id.
 
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#669
davethevol said:
Is it safe doing that?
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I sure wouldn’t trust my assets with somebody that avoids the Feds’ rules. They aren’t going to win that battle. I would think that the more compliant exchanges will be the legitimate exchanges. A bit of a dichotomy though as the crypto mantra is non-conformist and anti-government. A little FDIC, FSLIC, and SIPC aren't bad forms of government involvement.
 
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#670
#670
Tastylicks said:
Crypto is going in the tank now that China has banned it
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China didn't ban crypto, that's fake news. They reiterated their already existing restrictions. People are not banned from owning crypto. They just don't want anything to be used as currency that isn't government fiat.
 
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#674
#674
To make money trading in the long term narrow spreads, near zero transaction fees, and leverage will be needed. I have no idea if any of the crypto brokers fit those criteria. I would think that they aren’t yet offering competitive spreads and fees. High margin lending might could already be available as it’s an additional revenue stream. Competition leads to efficient options for the clientele… God bless capitalism (eff the Socialists and Communists).
 
#675
#675
Barron’s dot com:

… “ This is unlikely to be the end of the bull run," wrote Philip Gradwell, chief economist at Chainalysis, which tracks activity on the crypto blockchains. "Prices are historically high and much more is at stake than in past price declines."

Gradwell notes that $410 billion has been spent to acquire current Bitcoin holdings, and that $300 billion of that would represent a loss to their holders at prices below $36,000. That is a level current investors are likely to try to defend, absent some devastating news for the industry.

One sign he looks for to decipher industry sentiment is how much Bitcoin has been transferred from wallets to exchanges. Large investors tend to move money to exchanges before they sell. So far, less money has been moved to exchanges than in prior selloffs, meaning that institutional investors seem less likely to dump their holdings.

"The on-chain data suggests that retail is selling on exchanges, while institutional investors are just not buying as much rather than selling, although some have started to buy the dip today," Gradwell wrote on Wednesday.

"The stakes are much higher now than they were in the past," he wrote. "So much more has been invested in Bitcoin over the last year ($410 billion versus $110 billion) that there is the incentive and resources to address the problems in crypto that prevent it from becoming a mature asset."

The Bitcoin market is opaque, of course. Researchers like Gradwell can only analyze what they can see. In recent months, experts have blamed drops on unregulated crypto derivatives trading overseas. Those exchanges give investors the opportunity to buy with leverage, and those positions can unwind fast in a selloff as traders are subject to margin calls.

Unregulated retail crypto trading is a "less important part of the market today than it was four years ago, but it's still a big part of the market and you can get these big down moves as a result," Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of crypto fund provider Bitwise Asset Management, said in an interview.

Reporting contributed by Steve Goldstein.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires
05-20-21 1208ET
 
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