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Fidelity Acquires 10% Stake in Bitcoin Mining Firm Hut 8

14/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The giant fund manager Fidelity International holds roughly 10.6% stake in the bitcoin mining company Hut 8. For six years now, Fidelity, the firm that currently manages $300 billion on behalf of its customers, has been mining the cryptocurrency bitcoin.

In May 2017, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Fidelity integrating with Coinbase, mining bitcoin, and even accepting the digital asset at the firm’s cafeteria at its headquarters. Fidelity has been mining bitcoin since 2014, and over the years the firm has increased its stake in this growing industry.

On June 10, a newly filed alternative monthly reporting (AMR) disclosure with the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) shows that Fidelity owns around 10.6% stake in the mining firm Hut 8.

Just recently Hut 8 Mining Corp., raised $8.3 million by selling shares to investors and it intends to add 275 PH/s of mining capacity to existing operations. The regulatory filing with the OSC shows that Fidelity International holds a great number of Hut 8 shares.

“Fidelity holds 8,396,138 Common Shares and 2,054,956 common share purchase warrants, as a result of which Fidelity is deemed to hold 10,451,094 Common Shares representing approximately 10.58% of the outstanding shares of that class,” the Hut 8 AMR reads.

A look at the share composition indicates that Fidelity keeps a number of common shares and also has the ability to gather more shares in the future.

Of course, Fidelity discloses that “funds and accounts managed by Fidelity that hold the securities referenced herein may, from time-to-time, lend some or all of such securities pursuant to securities lending arrangements for such periods of time.”

“The Common Shares and warrants of Hut 8 Mining Corp. were acquired in the ordinary course of business, for investment purposes only and not with the purpose of exercising control or direction over Hut 8 Mining Corp,” the ARM notes.

The ARM was invoked after Hut 8 raised the $8.3 million by selling shares to investors during the underwritten public offering. In order to add 275 PH/s of mining capacity, Hut 8 detailed that it plans to purchase Whatsminer series mining rigs (M30S, M31S, M31S+) from the Chinese manufacturer Microbt.

Hut 8 initiated its mining operations in 2017 and in the spring of 2018, it was listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Bitcoin proponents on social media and digital currency-focused forums seemed pleased with Fidelity increasing stake in Hut 8 mining. One person tweeted that with the Bitcoin mining difficulty at a record high, “Fidelity bets big on Bitcoin mining.”

During the early morning trading sessions, the HUTMF stock charts on Trading View had shown the price was hovering at $0.82 apiece, but since the Fidelity announcement, it has risen to $0.8758.

What do you think about Fidelity betting big on bitcoin mining? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The post Fidelity Acquires 10% Stake in Bitcoin Mining Firm Hut 8 appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Chainlink Token Price Surges, Briefly Breaks Into the Top Ten by Market Cap

14/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The price of Link, the native token of the Chainlink network, soared in 48 hours gaining some 40% in that period. This rally saw the token briefly breaking into the crypto market capitalization top ten.

At the time of writing, the token LINK had a market capitalization of nearly $2.6 billion easily beating EOS whose capitalization stood at $2.4 billion.

The token, which had its listing in September 2017, started trading at just under $0.20. It currently trades at just above $7.3 and this represents a more than 4700% return on investment (ROI) to date for hodlers that bought the token at listing.

At the time of writing, the token’s 24-hour value traded topped $1.5 billion, the fifth-highest for the period, according to data from markets.Bitcoin.com.

Whales are reportedly showing an increasing appetite for a token that exhibits the right “fundamentals”. Whale alerts on Monday show movement of substantial quantities of the token between wallets and different exchanges.

Chainlink has seen major tech companies joining the network in what is seen as an endorsement.

However, critics like Messari’s Ryan Selkis have poured scorn on Chainlink’s fundamentals claiming they are misunderstood.

A report by U.Today quotes him saying the following:

Chainlink is proof that no one knows what they’re talking about and crypto ‘fundamentals’ is basically macro sentiment, alchemy, and animal spirits.

A decentralized oracle network, Chainlink aims to connect smart contracts with data from the real world. Since blockchains cannot access data outside their network, oracles are needed to function as data feeds in smart contracts.

Chainlink’s oracles are connected to the Ethereum network and they provide external data like for example temperature or weather. The external data triggers smart contract executions upon the fulfillment of predefined conditions.

The Chainlink network uses a reputation system, node providers that have a large amount of Link can be rewarded with larger contracts. Those failing to deliver accurate information will see a deduction of tokens.

What do you think about the Link token’s ongoing rally? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

The post Chainlink Token Price Surges, Briefly Breaks Into the Top Ten by Market Cap appeared first on Bitcoin News.

Abra Crypto App Charged by SEC for Transactions Affecting Thousands of US Stock and ETF Purchases

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

Abra Crypto App Charged by SEC for Transactions Affecting Thousands of US Stocks and ETFs

Abra cryptocurrency app has been charged by two U.S. regulators: the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The company has agreed to cease-and-desist orders as well as fines. The SEC says Abra’s employees “effected thousands of stock and ETF purchases in the U.S. to hedge the contracts.”

Abra Crypto App Sanctioned in the US

The SEC and CFTC independently announced on Monday that they have sanctioned California-based crypto app Abra and its related firm, Plutus Technologies Philippines Corp. d/b/a Abra International of the Philippines.

The SEC described in its order that it has charged Abra and the Philippine company “for unregistered security-based swap transactions.” The two companies were allegedly “offering and selling security-based swaps to retail investors without registration” and they failed “to transact those swaps on a registered national exchange,” the order details.

The securities regulator explained, “Abra developed and owns an app that enabled users to bet on price movements of … stocks and exchange-traded fund (ETF) shares trading in the U.S.,” elaborating:

Abra told users they could choose securities whose performance they wanted to mirror, and the value of their contract would go up or down the same amount as the price of the underlying security.

According to the SEC, these contracts were security-based swaps subject to U.S. securities laws. They are offered to retail investors, but “Abra took no steps to determine whether users who downloaded the app were ‘eligible contract participants’ as defined by the securities laws,” the SEC alleged. While Abra has moved certain operations abroad, the SEC says that Abra’s employees in California “designed and marketed the swap contracts, and screened and approved users who would be allowed to buy the contracts.” The securities regulator added:

The order further finds that Abra’s U.S.-based employees effected thousands of stock and ETF purchases in the U.S. to hedge the contracts.

“Without admitting or denying the findings in the order, Abra and Plutus agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a combined penalty of $150,000,” the SEC order describes.

Meanwhile, the CFTC has separately sanctioned the two companies “for entering into illegal off-exchange swaps in digital assets and foreign currency with U.S. and overseas customers and registration violations.” The CFTC order also requires them to “pay a $150,000 civil monetary penalty and to cease and desist from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).” Effectively, Abra will pay $300,000 in civil penalties in total.

Abra CEO Bill Barhydt tweeted Monday that “Abra’s business is doing very well with our loyal US users leading the way. We have users in 100 countries with people making $ millions in deposits via bank, stablecoin, bitcoin, credit card, and over 50 other cryptocurrencies.” However, he would not comment on the SEC order.

What do you think about the SEC and CFTC charging Abra? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Bitcoin Difficulty Touches All-Time High, 120 Exahash of Hashpower Remains Strong

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The network difficulty for the Bitcoin network spiked over 9.8% on Monday bringing the difficulty to its highest point ever. The record high of 17.35 trillion makes it much harder for bitcoin miners to profit. However, the overall Bitcoin network hashrate has remained consistently above the 120 exahash per second (EH/s) zone.

On July 13, 2020, the Bitcoin (BTC) network saw it’s largest difficulty metric ever, as it touched the 17.35 trillion mark on Monday. Basically, difficulty is the value used to measure how difficult it is to find a hash below a target defined by the Bitcoin network.

The network has a global block difficulty and validated blocks must have a hash below the given target. Essentially the lower the difficulty, the easier it is to find blocks on the BTC network, and the higher the difficulty means acquiring bitcoins via mining is much harder. The difficulty changes every two weeks depending on hashrate speed or approximately every 2016 blocks.

The Bitcoin (BTC) network sees the highest difficulty jump ever.

The 17.35 trillion is the highest the difficulty has ever been, which means it is the most difficult time ever to mine bitcoins right now. Moreover, it was only just recently on May 11, 2020, when the block reward was cut in half, and miners saw 50% revenue losses overnight.

Now the upwards spike in difficulty over 9.8% wasn’t as large as the 14.95% jump on June 16, 2020. However, at that time the difficulty was only 15.78 trillion. The second-largest difficulty height happened three days before the grueling March 12 market crisis, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday.’

The Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate continues to climb higher.

Despite the jump in difficulty to 17.35 trillion, the overall BTC global hashrate has remained high above the 120 EH/s range. There are 16 unique mining pools hashing away at the BTC network and the top mining pool is F2pool.

This is followed by operations such as Poolin, Btc.com, Antpool, and Huobi respectively. F2pool’s hashpower is roughly 16% of the network while Poolin has a touch over 15%. The latter three pools have around 10% or more of the entire BTC global hashrate.

The hashrate increase has bitcoiners discussing the mining difficulty situation via social media and crypto forums. Many are conversing about the overall security of the BTC network and whether or not the hashrate will drop or rise from here.

If the overall BTC hashrate continues to climb higher, then the difficulty will rise again in two weeks’ time. If there is a substantial exodus of miners shutting down machines temporarily, then the difficulty will drop after the next 2016 blocks are consumed.

What do you think about the Bitcoin network’s difficulty jumping to its highest metric ever? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Deposition of Craig Wright’s Wife Shows Little Understanding of Bitcoin Private Keys

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

According to a court filing on June 30, the Kleiman v. Wright case has postponed the jury trial until October 13 in the Miami Division courthouse. Meanwhile, a deposition stemming from Craig Wright’s wife, Ramona Watts, shows that she has little understanding of how Bitcoin works after being married to the self-proclaimed ‘cryptocurrency inventor’ for years.

The Deposition of Craig Wright’s Wife — Ramona Watts

Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the Gavin Andresen deposition in the infamous Kleiman v. Wright billion-dollar lawsuit. Ira Kleiman, the brother of the now-deceased Dave Kleiman, is suing Craig Wright for allegedly manipulating Dave’s ostensible bitcoin holdings worth $5.1 billion, at the time of the original filing on February 14, 2018.

“In April 2013, mere months prior to Bitcoin’s entry into the mainstream, Dave died after a long battle with MRSA,” the Kleiman estate’s accusations read. “At the time of his death, no one in his family was aware of the extent of his involvement in creating Bitcoin. Nor were they aware that he had accumulated, with Craig, an incredible sum of bitcoins. Recognizing that Dave’s family and friends weren’t aware of this, Craig perpetrated a scheme against Dave’s estate to seize Dave’s bitcoins and his rights to certain intellectual property associated with the Bitcoin technology.”

The original court order adds:

As part of this plan, Craig forged a series of contracts that purported to transfer Dave’s assets to Craig and/or companies controlled by him. Craig backdated these contracts and forged Dave’s signature on them.

On March 19, 2020, another deposition was recorded with Craig Wright’s wife, Ramona Watts. However, her deposition was sealed all the way up until June 27, 2020, and it is now available for public viewing. The interview with Watts shows that she didn’t really seem to understand the nature and technicalities tied to Bitcoin, specifically private keys, even though her husband claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. Additionally, Watts reveals that she recently became a director for two companies as of January 2020; Wright International and Tulip Trading.

Watts also discussed the alleged “Tulip Trust,” which ostensibly holds a large number of bitcoins. Wright’s wife explains that she was aware of the so-called bitcoin stash and in 2012. Meanwhile the family “didn’t have a lot of money” and Craig was “working day and night and it was financially very difficult.”

At the time, Watts had “no idea really what Bitcoin was all about,” the transcript reads. However, Wright explained to her that the money was set aside for specific ventures in the future. “This is my life’s work, we’re going to have to make sure there are certain rules to this trust so that the bitcoin can only be spent for certain things,” Wright allegedly said to his wife eight years ago, according to the written testimony from Watts.

‘If You Don’t Have the Private Keys to the Bitcoin, It Doesn’t Mean That You Don’t Own That Bitcoin’

While speaking with Andrew Brenner, an attorney for Ira Kleiman, Watts had an interesting technical view of how bitcoins can be spent. When Brenner asked Watts about not being able to spend the coins because they don’t have the “full private keys,” she said that she thinks there are other ways of spending the bitcoins.

“I do believe that there are other ways that you can access the bitcoin, providing that they are according to— they fulfill the trust purpose by legal means, but I don’t know how,” Watts responded. “I liken it to if you have lost your car key and you cannot actually drive to a certain place, but if you call roadside assistance and say, “This is my car,” you have to show them some proof that it is your car. Obviously, you cannot just go into a parking lot and say, ‘That great sporty Mercedes is my car.” If you show them some proof it was your car, they might be able to either cut you another key or get you in, open the door for you.”

When Brenner pressed Watts for more answers he said other than “believing there is a way to do it,” she didn’t know how to spend the bitcoin in the trust. And Watts responded by saying:

Currently, we cannot because we don’t have the full private keys to the trust. But it does not actually mean that the trust— it is very hard to explain. So you don’t have the private keys to the bitcoin but it doesn’t mean that you don’t own that bitcoin. I am not sure you understand that— We don’t have the private keys necessary to actually spend the bitcoin in that particular way. But I believe that there are other ways. I’m not sure if it is spending or they are assignments, I believe legally there might be other ways to do it, but I don’t know how.

Kleiman v. Wright Jury Trial Set for October 13

Watts also discusses Dave Klieman in great detail and some ostensible encrypted files that hold electronic files that allegedly hold “Craig’s notes.” “There were formulas and algorithms on how you calculate private keys,” Watts said. Craig’s wife also spoke about Denis Bosire Mayaka and Uyen Nguyen, who seemed to have played many important roles in regards to the alleged “Tulip Trust.” Watts also said that the Wright family had a tough year in 2014, when their “computers [were] hacked, personal computers at home, and the computers in the office.”

Similar to Andresen’s deposition, the testimony from Watts gives some more perspective into the mysterious life of Craig Wright, the man who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto. The lawsuit seems like it will be going to trial and Covid-19 is holding up the court processes. As of July 30, 2020, Judge Beth Bloom signed an order that notes a jury trial reset for October 13, 2020, but there’s a calendar reset call scheduled for one week prior.

What do you think about the testimony from Watts and the jury trial being set for mid-October? Let us know what you think about this case in the comments section below.

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