Ep. 103 Bitcoin ATMs everywhere

On this week’s episode of the Unhashed Podcast: Leaked FinCEN documents detail that major banks were facilitating YUGE amounts of money laundering, the Norwegian oil fund owns 577.6 bitcoins by owning shares in MicroStrategy, Bitcoin “investment” company Mirror Trading International (MTI) is running a multi-level marketing scam, the bitcoin ATM industry has reached a milestone with over 10,000 machines installed worldwide, with the re-launch of tBTC over $1 billion in bitcoin is now tokenized on Ethereum, and Brazil’s Hashdex is teaming up with Nasdaq to bring the world’s first Bitcoin ETF to the Bermuda Stock Exchange.

  1. Leaked FinCEN documents detail that major banks were facilitating YUGE amounts of money laundering.  For instance, JP Morgan allowed a company to move more than $1bn through a London account without knowing who owned it. The bank later discovered the company might be owned by a mobster on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.  

    1. Back in July, on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin said “I dont think its accurate that cash is laundered all the time. We have the strongest AML system in the world… I dont think (money laundering) has been successfully done with cash” and "We are going to make sure that bitcoin doesn't become the equivalent to swiss numbered bank accounts". Source

  2. Also in the FinCEN docs, per reporting from CoinDesk, “the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) flagged a number of transactions with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) it deemed suspicious as they appeared to be “layered” – a money-laundering technique that hides the source of funds through sending multiple transactions. Worth a combined $137 million, the bank said these transactions came from entities linked to OneCoin – a crypto scheme the U.S. government accused of being a Ponzi. It’s estimated OneCoin raised a total of $4 billion from investors, making it one of the most successful schemes of its kind ever.”

  3. According to an analysis of data by Arcane Research, the Norwegian oil fund now owns 577.6 bitcoins. This result is based on the information obtained concerning the shares in MicroStrategy Inc.. In this week’s report, Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy Founder, said the company owns a total of 38,250 bitcoins and, according to available data, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund has a 1.51% stake. However, we can also see other important names in the table, such as BlackRock Fund Advisors with a 15.24% stake (5829.30 BTCs) and also The Vanguard Group, Inc. with a share of 11.72% (4482.90 BTCs). source

  4. South African group “Anonymous ZA” has published information that Mirror Trading International (MTI), an ostensible bitcoin investment company, is running a multi-level marketing scam. The new information, which was reportedly obtained after a breach of MTI internal systems, shows that the investment company is “entirely structured around a pyramid scheme.” The data suggests that MTI has a practice of distinguishing between “normal members and founder members.”, and it appears that while “deposits made by founder members are not easily traceable, the (founders) seemingly get better ROI than regular members.” The data also shows that “founder members are at the top of the pyramid scheme and earn more money from their binary bonuses than ROI or any other source.” The report confirms that members are paid to recruit new members but it fails to provide the number of founding members. Earlier in July, the Texas State Securities Board (TSSB) accused MTI of running a multi-level marketing scam as well, as it operated in the state of Texas without a license. The TSSB subsequently issued a cease and desist order against MTI and some of its employees. Afterward, South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) issued its own public statement which repeats allegations made by TSSB. However, the FSCA statement goes further by asking investors to withdraw their funds from MTI. source

  5. The bitcoin ATM industry has reached a milestone as the number of machines installed worldwide has surpassed 10,000 after seven years since the first machine was installed. There are now 10,162 bitcoin ATM locations spread across 71 countries. Source

  6. A decentralized way to copy bitcoin (BTC) over to Ethereum is relaunching today after a smart-contract bug sunk the project in May. BTC holders who want to use Ethereum but worry about censorship risk with BitGo’s WBTC are invited to deposit BTC and mint TBTC tokens. Putting bitcoin on Ethereum gives hodlers access to the yields of defi tokens and has taken off in earnest since tBTC’s aborted launch. Over $1 billion in bitcoin is now tokenized on Ethereum. source

  7. Brazil’s Hashdex is teaming up with Nasdaq to bring the world’s first Bitcoin ETF to the Bermuda Stock Exchange. 

Regulated Brazilian fund manager Hashdex has inked a deal with Nasdaq to launch the world’s first crypto asset exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX). The stock exchange announced it had approved the ‘Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index’ on September 18, revealing that 3 million Class E shares will be issued for trade on the platform. Cointelegraph Brazil confirmed the Nasdaq partnership and ETF with Hashdex’s chief executive, Marcelo Sampaio. According to local media outlet Infomoney, the fund should be live and trading on the BSX by the end of the year. The report notes that Hashdex chose to apply with BSX due to Bermuda’s crypto-friendly regulations. Exchange-traded funds offer a regulated and insured vehicle for institutional investors access exposure to commodities without holding the underlying assets. Source

  1. On Wednesday, the Wyoming Banking Board voted to approve the San Francisco-based crypto exchange’s application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charter, as reported by CoinDesk. Kraken is now the first SPDI bank in Wyoming. According to the Wyoming Division of Banking’s general counsel, Chris Land, Kraken will also be the first newly chartered (de novo) bank in the state since 2006. “By becoming a bank we get direct access to federal payments infrastructure, and we can more seamlessly integrate banking and funding options for customers,” said David Kinitsky, a managing director at Kraken and the CEO of the newly formed Kraken Financial. (Kinitsky has run Grayscale Investments, was the first digital assets hire at Fidelity and was most recently head of business development at payments startup Circle.)

Price Analysis:

Number go down

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Colin aulds