US Supreme Court Order Limits SEC's Fines On Fraudulent Crypto Firms

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 6/24/2020 10:50 AM ET

The U.S. Supreme Court has limited the powers of the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) when punishing defendants with fines, including for crypto and blockchain firms running fraudulent Initial Coin Offering (ICO).

The court ruled that the SEC is not entitled to impose fines, which is commonly known as disgorgements, which exceed the profits made from the fraudulent activities.

This ruling could have influenced some of the recent rulings by the SEC against cryptocurrency-related firms, which were slapped with significant fines. These fines included the equivalent amount of profits made from the fraudulent activity, plus interest and civil penalties. These significantly exceeded the defrauded amount.

Under the current ruling, the maximum fine the SEC could levy would have been the profits, which could only be used to repay those who were affected by the fraud. It states that such penalties can only be awarded for the benefit of victims" and not imposed as punitive damages.

The petitioners in the case, Charles Liu and Xin Wang, solicited nearly $27 million from foreign nationals to invest in the construction of a cancer-treatment center. However, an SEC investigation revealed that they misappropriated much of the funds in violation of the terms of a private offering memorandum.

The SEC brought a civil action against petitioners, seeking disgorgement equal to the full amount petitioners had raised from investors. The petitioners argued that the disgorgement remedy failed to account for their legitimate business expenses. However, the District Court disagreed and ordered petitioners jointly and severally liable for the full amount.

The U.S. Supreme Court now ruled 8-1 in favor of the SEC's right to seek disgorgement of ill-gotten gains. However, it curbed the SEC's enforcement powers by imposing limitations on the scope of such relief by noting that a disgorgement award that (i) does not exceed a wrongdoer's net profits and (ii) is awarded for the benefit of victims, is equitable relief permissible.

The Court noted that the SEC does not always return the entirety of disgorged proceeds to investors, and may instead deposit a portion of collections in a fund in the U.S. Treasury.

In future, the courts and the SEC will be required to undertake a close analysis of the proposed disgorgement amount to ensure that it does not exceed the total amount of a wrongdoer's net profits after deduction for legitimate business expenses, a process that may become costly and time-consuming in some instances.

The disgorgement award also will now be required to be returned to investors in all cases, rather than returned to the U.S. Treasury.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin To Reclaim $10,000 As Technicals and Newsflow Lifts Sentiment

Gary McFarlane   •   BITCOIN (BTC) NEWS   •   June 23, 2020

Bitcoin has failed on successive occassions to break through major resistance at $10,000, but is that about to change?

As the lowered volatility of the past couple of weeks continues, both bears and bulls are contemplating whether a period of relative calm is the compression of the coil that will propel prices markedly lower, or higher.

In that bull-bear battle, both sides can point to encouraging technicals.

The case for the bitcoin (BTC) breakout

But let’s look at the case for the upside; and to gather evidence for a prognosis let’s look back over the past year.

Since last June we can discern a pattern of lower highs, which we can group into four major episodes, circled in blue in the chart below.

BTC/USD 23 June 2020 1-day candles Bitstamp (Click to view larger image)

But that pattern of lower highs broke down at the end of last year with sideways traffic that eventually gave way to the rally in the new year, ending with the failure to hold above $10,000 and the crash to $3,000 that badly dented sentiment.

The big question is whether that damage still hangs over the market. Is it the cause of the drag that has prevented the market breaking decisively high over the past couple of months?

Is the climb from the March nadir to again challenge $10,000 a fake that forewarns another test of the March lows to come or instead the consolidation that prefaces a breakout?

Higher lows encourages bitcoin’s bulls

Given that the decidedly bearish lower highs seems to have played out and bitcoin has largely hung on to the gains made in April and early May, the battle to retake $10,000 warrants closer consideration by bulls.

Rejection after rejection is admittedly a fairly bearish signal at a major area of resistance but that’s not the whole story.

In this near-term set-up we surely have to take account of the fact that the price action shows a pattern of higher lows, and that puts a different complexion on things; bulls have plenty of room for optimism.

BTC/USD 4-hour chart 23 June 2020 Bitstamp (Click to view larger image)

But we can’t rely on technicals alone, especially at this juncture when the macro picture entails unprecedented risk.

If the rally in stocks has further to go – which in itself would be in defiance of economic fundamentals – then it could strengthen the argument for a near-term breakout.

Conversely, a breakdown from here could see stocks falling very hard, dragging down other risk assets in their wake in a repeat of the “cash is king” sell off that saw all asset classes losing value in the descent into the bear market. That would clearly be bearish for bitcoin.

Yet, if equity markets do fall, what are the chances that this time bitcoin does not positively correlate with stocks and instead shows the resilience that its supporters had previously expected when the pandemic-induced collapse into the bear market first began?

With the financial policymakers printing money like it’s going out of fashion, the case for bitcoin “hard” money may have firmed, or at least it is now easier to discern for those previously unconvinced.

Bitcoin to $1,000,000 says Chambers

That’s what lies behind the thinking of Clem Chambers, chief executive of stocks, shares and crypto website ADVFN. 

“I have come to the conclusion that bitcoin is going to $1,000,000. While it has seemed extremely unlikely to me until now, I suddenly see that mirage as being a possibility.

“I now believe this could happen not because the value of bitcoin will go up, though I think it will, but because the value of money is about to fall heavily and quite possibly into the depths of monetary hell.”

Add to the hard money narrative a fair wind from central bank digital currency initiatives, an ETF from WisdomTree, with an albeit small bitcoin component, and the latest news (or is it just a rumour?) that PayPal and Venmo will soon be allowing their 300 million customers to buy and sell bitcoin, and the moment may be upon us for the breakout to begin.

Disclaimer: This article is not meant to give financial advice. Any additional opinion herein is purely the author’s and does not represent the opinion of EWN or any of its other writers. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the numerous cryptocurrencies available. Thank you.

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Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Gary McFarlane.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

UK's FCA Urges Crypto-related Businesses To Register Before June-end Deadline

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 6/22/2020 10:38 AM ET

The U.K.'s financial watch dog has reminded crypto-related businesses operating in U.K. to register with them before the deadline of June 30 to comply with the new regulations. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires firms to submit completed applications for registration by the deadline to ensure that applications are processed on time.

The move follows the appointment of the FCA as the anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing (AML/CTF) supervisor of businesses carrying out certain crypto-asset activities in the UK in early January.

The FCA had at that time requested all existing businesses undertaking crypto-asset activities to be registered with it before January 2021. It urged them to ensure the deadline of June 30 is met for submitting completed applications for registration so that the applications can be reviewed, processed and registered in time.

This will also give the FCA a little more than six months to review and raise any follow-up questions with firms and complete the registration process before January 10, 2021.

The regulator warned that any of these businesses that are not registered with the FCA before the January 10, 2021 deadline will have to cease carrying on business.

The FCA added that other financial firms that are already authorized or registered under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, Electronic Money Regulations 2011 or Payment Services Regulations 2017, but undertaking crypto-asset activity, will also be required to apply for registration.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

3 Ways Bitcoin Traders Can Spot and Avoid Crypto Market Manipulation

Institutions have embraced Bitcoin but BTC whales still impact the crypto market by using hidden orders and wash trading.

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

            JUNE 20, 2020

Unlike traditional financial markets, crypto exchanges are largely unregulated, and virtually every Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto trader is familiar with various stories detailing the degree to which certain aspects of crypto market price action is manipulated.

Despite this, many traders feel like there is little they can do to avoid the whims of whales and unethical market makers that shape the market to their advantage. Strategies like spoofing and hidden orders are common obfuscation tactics that savvy traders use to sway crypto prices.

Tracking manipulators' moves is a cat and mouse game, but there are strategies retail-size traders can use to circumvent them. Let's take a look at three strategies that whales use and how a trader can avoid being deceived by them.

Hidden orders

Hidden orders are used to place sizable undetected bids and asks on the exchange order book. They allow for the automatic replenishment (iceberg) after each fill, thereby avoiding detection on exchanges order books.

Example of an iceberg order. Source: OKEx (Click for larger view)

This strategy is the opposite of a buy/sell wall, where a trader spoofs the market by placing large orders with no intention of executing them. Hidden orders typically involve large amounts, and they are readily available for anyone to use at most cryptocurrency exchanges.

Most buy and sell walls are not meant to be executed; they are meant to represent large flow but are usually canceled the minute the market reaches their levels. Very few whales would self-report their flow before executing it.

A simple way to avoid being deceived by a hidden order is not to monitor the order book like a hawk. The less one relies on measuring order book depth, the better. Most exchanges allow traders to minimize the order book from the trading screen view.

Some traders do consider order book flow an essential part of their trading routine, and there are more sophisticated tracking programs readily available. It is worth noting that market makers and algorithmic traders know how to manipulate those as well.

Wash trading by using multiple exchanges Whales sometimes deceive the general public by posting large trades on heavily monitored exchanges while simultaneously doing the opposite on a smaller one. Professional traders could also be doing this either to profit from funding rate arbitrage, wash trading, but sometimes they are merely aiming to hide their real flow.

Market makers are usually paid for bringing flow to small venues, and they benefit from boosting their volumes on more significant exchanges in exchange for lower trading fees. Although this strategy is legal, it inflates volumes and is often used to delude traders into non-existent buy and sell flow.

Traders looking to avoid these tactics can ignore large individual trades and focus on longer price trends to prevent being misled.

Forced liquidation

As crazy as it may sound, sometimes a whale will prop up prices to liquidate their exposure. This holds especially true when the market is already overleveraged, a scenario which can be measured by a significant funding rate imbalance. To benefit from this tactic whales simply open an opposite position of similar size.

Forcing a liquidation oftentimes leads to a cascade of similar order flow and while most short sellers will suffer and the whale has its large short positions liquidated, the entity responsible for the forced liquidation also boosts their gains on the previous long contracts.

There is no way to predict whether an entity is building this kind of strategy but there is an important indicator one can monitor to avoid being on the wrong side of such moves.

BTC futures contracts per expiry date. Source: Skew (Click for larger view)

Comparing the premium on longer-term contracts to perpetual futures provides an unbiased tool that helps to gauge professional traders positions. A neutral market should display an ascending curve, ranging from a $50 to $150 premium which is equivalent to 0.5-1.5 percent depending on the maturity.

A flattish or inverted curve signals whales are heavily skewed to a bearish sentiment. On the other hand, any premium above 1 percent for contracts expiring within three months is a bullish indicator.

Main takeaways

As previously stated, professional traders go to great lengths to avoid detection. They do the exact opposite when they intend to utilize buy and sell walls to benefit from the resulting FUD and FOMO.

Unfortunately, there is not a 100% transparent, auditable indicator that can monitor manipulative tactics, especially in a market that has nearly zero fees for large traders.

As the markets continue to grow but also remain outside the reach of financial regulators, obfuscation and spoofing strategies could become more widely used.

As a rule of thumb, retail traders should learn to take a longer-term view on crypto price action instead of watching charts measured in minutes because a bird’s-eye view provides a more general sense of the trend and what is occurring in the market.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Marcel Pechman.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin is Still in a No Trade Zone as BTC Battles for $9,300 Support

Bitcoin is once again attempting to maintain the crucial $9,300 support zone.

John P. Njui   •   BITCOIN (BTC) NEWS   •   June 20, 2020

In brief:

• Bitcoin has been experiencing some serious sideways movement for over a week.
• Since around the 11th of June, BTC has oscillated between $9,600 and $8,900.
• $9,300 continues to be a strong support zone as Bitcoin’s next move is torn between pumping and dumping.

Another weekend has commenced and Bitcoin is once again in the spotlight as the King of Crypto has had a very uneventful few days since last week. Around the 10th of June, Bitcoin tried and failed once again to claim $10,000.

As a result, it dropped to around $9,100 almost immediately and has since been experiencing some serious sideways movement since the 11th of June. For over a week, BTC has been oscillating between $9,600 and $8,900 providing the perfect environment for experienced scalpers but confusing swing traders who prefer bigger moves in the crypto markets.

BTC is Still in a No Trade Zone

The uncertainty of Bitcoin to either move up or down has forced many traders to sit on the sidelines as they wait for a proper signal of BTC’s next move. At the last weekly close, it was clear that BTC was going to lose the $9,300 support zone. However, a bullish stock market brought about by the Fed, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England printing more money, has further provided a case for BTC attempting $10,000 once again.

This is due to the fact that since the Coronavirus crash of mid-March, Bitcoin has proven to be highly correlated to the global stock markets.

It is with this conflict between technical analysis pointing towards a move down and the stock markets pumping, that it can be concluded that Bitcoin is in a clear no-trade-zone.

$9,300 is Once Again the Battle Ground

(Click on image for large view)

Checking the daily BTC/USDT chart courtesy of Tradingview, the following can be observed.

• The 50-day moving average is providing adequate support at current levels around $9,300.
• The 100-day and 200-day moving averages provide further support around the $8,000 – $8,100 range.
• The usual support zones of $9,150, $9,050 and $8,900 are still valid.
• Trade volume has reduced pointing to a major move soon.
• MACD is pointing towards a move down with the MFI slightly indicating a push up.

Conclusion: A Possible Red Week Ahead

In conclusion, Bitcoin is displaying a bag of mixed signals as to what direction its price will take in the coming week. For the swing traders, it is a clear no-trade zone with the focus once again on the weekly close on Sunday.

Also to note, is that the CME Bitcoin Futures expire next Friday, June 26th. Therefore, if history is to go by, the coming week will be a red one for BTC. Additionally, the world is now settling to the fact of a possible second wave of the Coronavirus in the United States as well as China. This reality could cause the stock market to also experience losses in the week to come.

As with all technical analyses of Bitcoin, investors and traders are requested to use risk management techniques as well as stop losses to protect their trading capital.

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Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by John P. Njui.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Ernst & Young Launches EY CryptoPrep To Help Clients Auto-calculate Crypto Tax

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 6/19/2020 10:27 AM ET

The big four accounting services firm Ernst & Young LLP or EY, has launched a cryptocurrency tax application called 'EY CryptoPrep' to assist its clients with U.S. tax filings related to their cryptocurrency transactions. The application modernizes and automates the crypto tax accounting process.

The launch comes just ahead of the tax filing deadline as the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gets cracking on non-compliance in cryptocurrency tax.

The IRS continues to warn taxpayers, who do not properly report virtual currency transactions, that they will be liable for tax, penalties and interest and in some cases they could be subject to criminal prosecution.

The new Software as a Service (SaaS), web-based product is a fully automated, enterprise-grade crypto tax engine offering step-by-step guidance through the crypto tax process. It helps individuals calculate tax-related gain or loss from crypto transactions.

EY CryptoPrep will request basic information to calculate the clients taxable gain or loss on crypto transactions across all major exchanges, without complication or jargon. It supports many major cryptocurrency coins and exchanges.

The application helps in importing all transactions of a particular individual from across all exchanges. Any other additional off-exchange transactions can then be added to it and the draft 8949 tax form can be downloaded. It also allows for downloading of draft IRS 8949 forms for current and past years.

It applies appropriate tax rules to deliver a detailed account of cryptocurrency capital gains or losses and completes Form 8949 for all applicable tax years after aggregating and reconciling transaction data. It even enables users to submit amended returns for prior years to reconcile previous tax liabilities.

EY CryptoPrep uses the same methodology that EY uses for commercial clients and is based on the latest guidance from the IRS.

In March 2019, EY had launched a similar tool called EY Crypto-Asset Accounting and Tax (CAAT) to serve its institutional and commercial clients in the U.S. for calculating the tax payable on cryptocurrency holdings and transactions executed by them.

IRS treats virtual currency as a commodity or property, and not as real currency, for federal tax purposes. Therefore, virtual currencies are also subject to capital gains laws.

The current guidance for taxpayers is to file each and every transaction executed using a cryptocurrency. And the IRS has increased enforcement activities against taxpayers who "misreport" their cryptocurrency transactions.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Reddit Hopes to Eventually Onboard Its Over 430 Million Monthly Users to Ethereum

By Olivia Brooke – June 19, 2020

One month after Reddit introduced 20 million users to two of its ERC-20 tokens, Reddit has now established that its latest mission is to onboard all of its 430 million users to Ethereum. As reported in May, Reddit launched a payment reward system dubbed "Community points."

The payment systems which are Ethereum-based ERC-20 tokens is designed to reward subscribed users for their contribution to the supported communities. Initially, Reddit set its gaze on only the r/Cryptocurrency and r/FortniteBR subreddits, both of which are home to 20 million monthly Reddit users. As of yesterday, Reddit announced that its newer objective is to scale community points to all of its 430 million active monthly users.

Reddit intends to achieve this goal through its diehard r/Ethereum subreddit users which are totaled at 466,000 subscribers. In partnership with the Ethereum founder, Reddit is urging users with innovative scaling projects to present their best scaling solutions for consideration. Specifically targeting projects that have the potential to usher community points on the mainnet for its broad user base, participants are expected to center all projects around decentralization, scalability, and usability.

“In conjunction with the Ethereum Foundation, Reddit is inviting Ethereum scaling projects to show the community how your scaling solution can be used to bring Community Points to mainnet,” reads the post. “Our goal is to find a solution that will support hundreds of thousands of Community Points users on mainnet today, and can eventually scale to all of Reddit.”

Scalability and transparency

Scaling is expected to accommodate as much as 100,000 community points, 25,000 substitutions, 100,000 transfers and 75,000 one-off points burnings, all in the space of five days. Gradually, scaling is expected to support millions of users.

In order to preserve transparency, solutions for decentralization are required to function without any reliance on third parties of any kind, including Reddit.

Usability and interoperability

In terms of usability, Reddit is establishing speed as a topmost priority, with scaling solutions expected to process transactions, not in hours or days, but in minutes or split seconds. Reddit also scraps the need for gas fees from users, meaning that these solutions should be free for everyone including end-users.

Scaling solutions are also expected to alleviate the stress of users providing any more than basic information in order to complete sign-ins and transaction tracking. When it comes to interoperability, Reddit wants solutions to seamlessly allow for compatibility with third-party applications.

Security

Security is one of the other areas where decentralization shines. Reddit puts the spotlight on its users. Solution requirements specifically state that users should have total control of their transactions at all times, with no external interference and no room for manipulation or forging of transaction balances.

Scaling experts will present their solutions on the 31st of July in a demo format, including proof of concept, documentation, and overall documentation of the structure of the scaling solutions. Interested participants should note that there will be no payment for participation, even for the winning solution.

The high point of Reddit’s integration of ERC-20 tokens has remained the same: exposure for Cryptocurrency, specifical adoption for Ethereum solutions. Since May, Reddit has onboarded 18,000 users to Ethereum even before the incorporation of community points to the mainnet. It is without a doubt that 2020 will be a big year for the Ethereum network.

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DISCLAIMER

The views expressed in the article are wholly those of the author and do not represent those of, nor should they be attributed to, ZyCrypto. This article is not meant to give financial advice. Please carry out your own research before investing in any of the various cryptocurrencies available.

The original article written by Olivia Brooke and posted on ZyCrypto.com.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Scam Artists Under Investigation for Impersonating Police

Canadian police warned about a Bitcoin scam scheme alleged to have stolen over $15,400 from two Strathcona County residents.

Image courtesy of CoinTelegraph

            JUNE 18, 2020

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, is investigating two Bitcoin (BTC) scams in Strathcona County in Alberta, Canada. They allege that fraudsters impersonated the local authorities in order to extort their victims for money.

According to The Sherwood Park News on June 16, one of the victims received a call by a person that claimed to be from the Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA. The other victim said that the scammer stated he was an RCMP officer.

Depositing money into a Bitcoin machine

The authority’s report states that both unidentified residents of Alberta’s county were asked to withdraw cash from a bank and then deposit it into a Bitcoin machine. They were told that if these funds were not paid, the scammers would arrest them.

The victim who was contacted by the fake CRA representative lost almost 12,000 CAD ($8,836) due to the scam.

The fake RCMP officer told the other victim that his insurance number had been compromised, stating that there were several fraud allegations against him. The scammer asked the victim to withdraw money from the bank and then, as in the other case, deposit it into a Bitcoin kiosk.

Total amount lost in the scam

The RCMP stated that individuals lost over 21,000 CAD ($15,460) in total during the scam. They warned people to contact RCMP immediately if they experience suspicious, seemingly fraudulent attempts at extortion. They also note that citizens can check the Canadian Anti-Fraud Center website for information.

Chantelle Kelly, Strathcona County's RCMP officer, commented:

"There is no circumstance where police will contact individuals requesting Bitcoin. These scammers typically contact hundreds of people hoping someone will send them money."

On May 2, Cointelegraph reported a series of scam emails sent from Japan asking people to donate BTC to the Olympic Games organization in Tokyo.

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Original article posted on the CoinTelegraph.com site, by Filipe Erazo.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe