An Ohio man named Larry Dean Harmon will serve three years in prison and forfeit more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency and other assets, the Department of Justice announced on Friday. Harmon was indicted in 2020 on money laundering conspiracy charges related to Helix, a darkweb cryptocurrency “mixer” service he ran.

Also known as crypto “tumbling,” services like Helix are designed to hide cryptocurrency transactions — often for illegal drugs — and the identity of people involved. From 2014 to 2017, Harmon processed more than 350,000 Bitcoin (about $311 million USD at the time) in such transactions, according to the DOJ’s announcement.

Harmon, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering in August 2021, will be on the hook for three years of supervised release after serving his prison sentence. He also received a $311,145,854 forfeiture money judgment.

He faced a possible 20 years in prison, but the judge in the case gave him a more lenient sentence after he helped with multiple other investigations, as The Wall Street Journal notes. That reportedly included his testimony in the trial of Roman Sterlingov, who ran another crypto mixer called Bitcoin Fog.

Dogecoin, which started as a joke, has long been the undisputed king of meme coins and has garnered a huge following since its creation. In a recent analysis shared on the social media platform X, crypto analyst Master Kenobi presented a compelling case for Dogecoin as a superior cryptocurrency compared to Bitcoin. 

Exceptional Historical Performance Compared To Bitcoin

Bitcoin, the world’s largest crypto asset, has outperformed every other asset in traditional finance in the last decade since its creation. However, as Master Kenobi pointed out, Dogecoin has indeed outperformed Bitcoin since its launch date. 

Master Kenobi noted that since its inception on December 8, 2013, Dogecoin has experienced a remarkable growth of approximately 883,920% up to its all-time high. In contrast, Bitcoin’s growth during the same period stands at about 17,234%. This significant outperformance underscores Dogecoin’s potential as a high-yield investment.

Unlike Bitcoin’s capped supply, DOGE employs a fixed inflation model, introducing around 5 billion new coins annually. Some might see this inflationary trend as negative for Dogecoin, but proponents of the meme coin have always emphasized that it is a needed feature. According to Kenobi, with DOGE’s total circulating supply currently above 140 billion DOGE, the annual issuance is now mostly negligible, and its effect will continue to decrease with time. Furthermore, the Dogecoin adoption rate has even far outpaced its inflation rate.

Lastly, the analyst highlighted the current low price of Dogecoin as one of its biggest advantages it has over Bitcoin. The relatively low price per DOGE unit makes it attractive to retail investors, who can acquire thousands of DOGE for the cost of a fraction of a Bitcoin. Bitcoin, on the other hand, is now being perceived more as an instrument for institutional investors due to its currently high price.

This affordability, combined with Dogecoin’s strong community and meme culture, makes it more appealing as an accessible cryptocurrency.

Current State Of Dogecoin

At the time of writing, Dogecoin is trading at approximately $0.38, with a 24-hour trading volume of $10.56 billion and a market capitalization of $55.8 billion. DOGE, which recently traded at $0.42 for the first time in two years, now finds its price correcting since October 13, having reached a low of $0.356 in the past 24 hours. 

Nonetheless, Dogecoin has maintained gains over both seven-day and 30-day periods, indicating a bullish trend. As such, the meme coin is definitely on track to end the month at a bullish close. There is also the possibility of reaching a new all-time high above $0.73 before the end of 2024. This optimism is partly fueled by the recent US presidential election, where President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a favorable stance toward cryptocurrencies.

Featured image created with Dall.E, chart from Tradingview.com

Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.