KSG Crypto Newsletter #4: January 24th, 2019
I ran, I ran so far away — Flock of Seagulls
Another day, another seed generator turns out to be the source of crypto theft… “Police Arrest €10 Million IOTA Cryptocurrency Theft Suspect”
This is a good demonstration of just how precarious the life of a crypto criminal is:
SEROCU says the U.K.-based suspect was first identified by the State Criminal Police of Hesse in July 2018, before being referred to Europol’s Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce, or J-CAT, in The Hague, Netherlands, which coordinated the different EU member states involved.
A common example of a post to /r/Bitfinex:
Withdrawal no credited since December 20th
Hi I’m waiting for my funds to arrive . I did a large withdrawal. Opened tickets and been in slow communication and nothing gets solved. Not fed wire provided. I’m very worried about my money. Somebody please advice
Received no response in 24 hours, so, par for the course.
“Tails I win, Heads you lose…”
Mike Novogratz’s firm, Galaxy Digital Ventures invested $52.5 million in Blockfi last June, which is a “Crypto lender,” which according to Bloomberg, “Are Thriving on Bitcoin’s Bust by Aiding Both Fanatics and Shorts”…
they’re finding strong demand from borrowers who don’t want to sell their virtual coins at depressed prices, as well as from big investors eager to borrow coins for short selling.
Here’s the “Use Case” section from Blockfi’s site:
More from Finance Magnates…
Earlier last year, a regulatory filing revealed that Galaxy Digital had over $280 million in assets as of the third quarter.
Despite the loss, Novogratz said earlier this year he still has “complete confidence” in the team’s ability to drive growth and that Galaxy is “strategically positioned to help further institutionalize the digital assets and blockchain industry.”
Novogratz has long been bullish on cryptos and blockchain. As part of his growth plans, Novogratz and his venture capital arm Galaxy Digital Ventures LLC participated in the latest $15 million funding round in cryptocurrency wallet provider BitGo.
In summation: Novogratz, who owns ~80% of Galaxy Digital and is supposedly “bullish” on crypto… is at the same time seeing great returns on his (essentially) payday lending-for-crypto company. Nice.
