Crypto

The IRS’ motto is to ‘follow the money.’ Now they crack crypto code.

Published

3 years ago

June 5, 2022

The IRS’ motto is to ‘follow the money.’ Now they crack crypto code.

When the Justice Division introduced in February that it had seized bitcoin value $3.6 billion, it was extra than simply the biggest restoration of alleged crime proceeds in U.S. historical past. It was the largest sign but that cryptocurrency, as soon as seen as enticing to criminals for its supposed protect of anonymity, is probably not so crime-friendly in any case.

Just some years in the past, the federal authorities barely knew what to do with cryptocurrency. Now, most federal legislation enforcement businesses make use of consultants adept at tracing it. Investigators are utilizing a brand new era of subtle software program that harnesses huge knowledge to hyperlink transactions to folks, making the most of the truth that most cryptocurrency transactions are recorded in public ledgers that may by no means be erased.

“If a financial institution was robbed 5 years in the past and also you’re nonetheless making an attempt to chase down these leads, you haven’t any concept doubtlessly the place that stolen money might be at this level,” stated Chris Janczewski, who spoke in an unique interview when he was the lead crypto investigator with the Inside Income Service. “With cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, each transaction is on a public ledger. It’s public and is there without end.”

Chris Janczewski.Courtesy Chris Janczewski

Janczewski made a profession’s value of circumstances on that proposition, together with appearing because the lead agent in that $3.6 billion seizure. He helped shut down a toddler exploitation ring to a North Korean hacking scheme to a terrorist fundraising enchantment — all involving cryptocurrency. He not too long ago left for a job with TRM Labs, whose software program helped hint the cryptocurrency on the coronary heart of these and lots of different circumstances.

“We on the IRS have at all times been centered on being monetary investigators — following the cash,” he stated. “We’d have posters [that said] ‘The most effective monetary investigators on the earth.’ And I’d wish to level out that there’s not an asterisk on the finish of that. It’s not only for U.S. {dollars} or the euro — that’s all sorts of monetary exercise, to incorporate cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin.”

There are several types of cryptocurrency; probably the most generally traded, together with bitcoin, is digital cash that’s not backed by any authorities. It exists on a decentralized community of computer systems based mostly on know-how known as blockchain and guarded by unbreakable codes.

Crypto has not caught on as a typical methodology of fee, however many cryptocurrencies have demonstrated endurance as “shops of worth” just like gold and different valuable metals. The worth of bitcoin and different currencies, whereas fluctuating considerably, has risen dramatically over time, drawing the curiosity of traders.

Initially, bitcoin and different crypto was seen as a useful gizmo for criminals making an attempt to keep away from scrutiny of their transactions, as a result of whereas the transactions are recorded, the identities of these making them might be obscured. However an increasing number of, legislation enforcement has been capable of pierce the veil of anonymity.

“What we’ve seen is that quite a lot of the explanations that made issues like bitcoin enticing to criminals are additionally making it more and more unattractive to criminals,” stated lawyer Urszula McCormack, a Hong Kong-based accomplice at King & Wooden Mallesons specializing in cross-border finance and know-how.

“Whenever you take a look at what is definitely concerned in a transaction, you’re taking a look at the usage of what’s known as a public key or a pockets, and that’s a string of letters and numbers,” she added, however “that isn’t purely nameless.”

Janczewski and different IRS investigators use analytic software program made by TRM, Chainalysis and different firms to scrape the online and the darkish net for bits of knowledge.

Based on Chainalysis’ annual crime report, simply 0.15 % of crypto transactions final yr concerned felony exercise, down from 3.37 % in 2019.

Nonetheless, that represents a big quantity of felony transactions, the corporate famous in a weblog publish.

The quantity of illicit exercise, $14 billion, “represents a big drawback,” the publish stated. “Felony abuse of cryptocurrency creates enormous impediments for continued adoption, heightens the chance of restrictions being imposed by governments, and worst of all victimizes harmless folks around the globe.”

Jared Koopman, the pinnacle of the IRS’s Felony Investigations Division, stated his company had change into adept at tracing cryptocurrency.

“Most crimes contain cash,” he stated. “They contain some kind of effort to scheme or defraud people or make a revenue on criminal activity. So our job is to observe and hint these monetary flows it doesn’t matter what the underlying crime is and to carry these folks accountable.”

In its newest problem, the IRS has been tasked with serving to the Justice Division examine how some Russian oligarchs evade sanctions, a few of them with cryptocurrency.

Because the lead crypto investigator, Janczewski performed a task in a sequence of extraordinary circumstances, together with one involving an enormous baby pornography ring known as “Welcome to Video.” The shoppers paid in bitcoin and thought they had been nameless. In 2019, almost 340 folks in 23 states and 12 nations had been arrested. And 23 youngsters had been rescued from their abusers, the Justice Division stated.

“Following the cash led to saving youngsters and truly impacting actual lives,” Janczewski stated.

In 2020, Janczewski helped the Justice Division expose an enormous scheme to steal $250 million value of cryptocurrency by the North Korea authorities, seizing an unspecified sum he stated amounted to thousands and thousands of {dollars} from the rogue regime.

The case concerned working with army hackers from U.S. Cyber Command, who initially puzzled why the IRS was knocking on their door, Koopman stated.

“Usually, after we usually stroll into the room with quite a lot of different businesses, the query is why is the IRS right here? And I believe that’s each a typical query but in addition one which we’re making an attempt to work to cease from occurring, as a result of we really feel like we provide a singular talent set that many different legislation enforcement businesses and intelligence group companions don’t essentially have.”

Additionally in 2020, Janczewski and the IRS took down three on-line terrorist financing campaigns, involving Hamas’ army wing, Al Qaeda and the Islamic State terrorist group, in what the IRS known as the federal government’s largest seizure of cryptocurrency within the terrorism context.

The Justice Division seized thousands and thousands of {dollars} from greater than 300 cryptocurrency accounts. For a time, the IRS arrange a faux fundraising web site that routed terrorism contributions to U.S. authorities coffers.

“That was fairly pleasant to suppose that cash that individuals thought had been going to go to a terrorist entity was as a substitute going to the victims-of-terrorism fund — like the exact opposite of what they really supposed to do,” Janczewski stated.

Crypto

Bitcoin Prices Surpass $100,000 For First Time In 2025 As Trump Rally Fuels Gains

Published

2 hours ago

January 7, 2025

Press Room

Bitcoin Prices Surpass 0,000 For First Time In 2025 As Trump Rally Fuels Gains

Bitcoin surpassed $100,000 earlier today. (Photo illustration by Chesnot/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Bitcoin prices rallied today, climbing past $100,000 for the first time this year as anticipation surrounding the inauguration of President-Elect Donald Trump bolstered the digital currency.

The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency by total market value reached more than $102,700 this evening, according to Coinbase data from TradingView.

At this point, it was up roughly 4% in less than 24 hours, after trading below $99,000 earlier in the day, additional Coinbase figures from TradingView reveal.

Interestingly enough, the digital asset, which reached an all-time high of more than $108,000 on December 24, spent the first several days of this year trading below the key, psychological level of $100,000.

Trump Rally

When asked what caused bitcoin’s latest rise above $100,000, several analysts pointed to the regime change that will take place two weeks from today, as well as its expected impact on policy.

“Personally, I think Bitcoin price pumped due to excitement of it being the first Monday of 2025 and every day is getting closer to a pro crypto president and the resignation of Gary Gensler,” said the TikTok influencer who goes by Wendy O.

Gensler, who became the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2021, has generated significant visibility for the highly aggressive approach he has taken toward the cryptocurrency sector.

In November, he shared some statistics on his X (formerly Twitter) account, citing an SEC statement detailing how the government agency had secured more than $8 billion dollars’ worth of financial penalties during fiscal year 2024.

The government official, who has drawn significant ire for his heavy handed treatment of cryptocurrency industry participants, plans to resign from his current post on January 20, according to a separate SEC statement.

Greg Magadini, director of derivatives for digital asset data provider Amberdata, also highlighted how anticipation surrounding the upcoming regime change has impacted investors and the markets.

“The presidential certification process, followed by the Jan 20th inauguration both represent bullish sentiment catalysts, especially as the labor market remains strong and the new administration will likely announce tax-cut policies and friendly regulation policies for crypto,” he stated.

US Investor Demand Returns

The interest that American investors have in bitcoin seems to have recovered after the start of the year, according to CryptoQuant analyst Julio Moreno.

When asked what caused the cryptocurrency’s latest upward price movement, the analyst stated via Telegram that “it seems related to the return of the US investor to the market after the holidays.”

He emphasized changes in CryptoQuant’s Coinbase Premium Index for bitcoin, which the data analytics provider defines as the percent “difference between Coinbase Pro price (USD pair) and Binance price(USDT pair).”

The chart below, which Moreno supplied, illustrates the index’s latest activity.

Bitcoin’s Coinbase Premium Index

CryptoQuant

“We can see the Coinbase Bitcoin price premium turning positive again for the first time since December 17 last year,” he stated.

“A positive Coinbase premium indicates relatively higher demand in the US,” Moreno noted.

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether, EOS and SOL.

Crypto

Court upholds ban that is shaking cryptocurrency world: 'Unduly discriminatory and unreasonable'

Published

10 hours ago

January 6, 2025

Press Room

Court upholds ban that is shaking cryptocurrency world: 'Unduly discriminatory and unreasonable'

The Canadian province of British Columbia has held firm in its stance against cryptocurrency, extending its restrictions against bitcoin mining into December.

According to CoinDesk, the BC Supreme Court upheld a ban early last year that the provincial government initiated in December 2022 after Conifex Timber — a forestry company that intended to begin mining operations in the province with the Tsay Keh Dene First Nation — challenged the moratorium.

“The total amount of megawatt-hours that would have been required to service all the interconnection requests from cryptocurrency operations in 2023 grossly exceeded the projections of BC Hydro,” the judge wrote.

A press release from the BC government following the initial ban stated that it paused 21 projects that requested 1,403 megawatts — equivalent to the energy needed to power approximately 570,000 homes in the region or charge 2.1 million electric vehicles.

Cryptocurrency advocates have pointed to the rising number of mining operations using renewable energy off the grid and to how the lucrative benefits of mining crypto flexibly can help to drive innovation, investment, and expansion of renewable energy and avoid wasting electricity. But for a region or country dealing with active threats to its energy grid, it may be harder to lean into that optimism until it is properly prepared to take advantage.

“The temporary suspension will preserve BC’s electricity supply, while giving government and BC Hydro sufficient time to engage with industry and First Nations, and develop a permanent framework for any future cryptocurrency mining operations,” the statement reads.

BC originally imposed an 18-month restriction to preserve its supply of sustainable and affordable energy provided by its largest electricity utility, BC Hydro, which produces over 90% of its power from hydroelectric sources, per CoinDesk.

The provincial government also passed an update to the Energy Statutes Amendment Act in 2024 to allow the Cabinet to bypass the BC Utilities Commission, giving it direct authority over the energy allocation to the crypto industry.

While the government argued that “these amendments will enable the eventual implementation of a permanent policy,” Conifex Timber contended in court that the ruling was “unduly discriminatory and unreasonable.”

The ruling comes amid bitcoin’s surging value and Vancouver, BC’s most populous city, pushing to become a bitcoin-friendly city.

Bitcoin has been an extremely divisive issue, with detractors noting its immense energy demands and resulting environmental impact. Its profitability and popularity have overburdened grids and even allegedly come at the cost of human health.

Meanwhile, proponents have championed its creative potential in sustainability; for example, companies are utilizing the high temperatures its data centers produce to heat commercial and residential buildings.

Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don’t miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.

Crypto

The Top 8 Cryptocurrency Staking Platforms of 2025: Maximize Your Passive Earnings | Bitcoinist.com

Published

17 hours ago

January 6, 2025

Press Room

The Top 8 Cryptocurrency Staking Platforms of 2025: Maximize Your Passive Earnings | Bitcoinist.com

Cryptocurrency staking has evolved into one of the most powerful ways to earn passive income, and with the growing variety of staking platforms, it’s easier than ever to generate returns on your crypto holdings. Whether you’re just starting out with crypto or you’ve been investing for a while, picking the right crypto staking platform is crucial to getting the most out of your money.

In this article, we’ll show you the top 8 cryptocurrency staking platforms for 2025—starting with the very best one: Keynode. These platforms offer high staking rewards, security, and features that will help you unlock the full potential of your digital assets.

1. Keynode: The Ultimate Staking Solution

Keynode has quickly ascended to the top of the staking world in 2025, offering a user-friendly experience that’s as secure as it is profitable. With its unparalleled flexibility and high rewards and highest APY crypto staking, Keynode is an investor’s dream for maximizing passive earnings.

Here’s a simple guide to get started with Keynode.net:

Visit Keynode.net -Visit the Keynode.net website to start your crypto journey.
Create an Account – Sign up and make an account, choosing a secure password, and following the verification steps to ensure your account is protected.
Claim Your Welcome Bonus– As a new user, you’re eligible for a $100 Welcome Bonus tied to the ETH Lite Plan.
Deposit Funds– Deposit your preferred cryptocurrency or fiat funds into your account.
Start Earning Through Staking or Other Plans– Choose from Keynode’s various earning options, like high-yield staking, to start growing your assets.

Earn Big with Keynode.net’s Affiliate Program (4% + Active Users Bonus)

The Keynode.net Affiliate Program is designed for crypto enthusiasts and affiliates who want to earn extra income by sharing Keynode.net with others.

Key Benefits of the Keynode.net Affiliate Program

No Deposit Required
You can join the affiliate program, share your referral link, and begin earning without needing to make an initial deposit.
High Pay-Outs
Earn up to 4% in referral rewards for every purchase made by a user who signs up through your link, maximizing your income from each referred customer.
Instant Payments
Keynode.net ensures you get paid quickly, with referral rewards credited instantly in cryptocurrency to your account.
No Limits on Referrals
With no cap on referrals, there’s no limit to your earning potential.

How It Works

Sign Up and Get Your Referral Link
Simply sign up for the affiliate program on Keynode.net and receive a unique referral link.
Share Your Link
Invite friends, family, and followers to join Keynode.net using your referral link.
Earn Rewards Instantly
Each time a referred user completes a purchase, your commission is credited immediately.
Active Users Bonus
Enjoy extra bonuses for each milestone in active users (those who have made a purchase). The more active users you bring in, the more you earn:

10 Active Users: Earn an extra $15
30 Active Users: Earn an extra $50
50 Active Users: Earn an extra $100
100 Active Users: Earn an extra $150
300 Active Users: Earn an extra $400
500 Active Users: Earn an extra $700
1,000 Active Users: Earn an extra $1,500
2,000Active Users: Earn an extra $3,000

Keynode.net Million Bounty Program

Keynode.net’s Million Bounty Program is your opportunity to earn rewards while contributing to the growth and success of our platform. By completing simple tasks, sharing the messages, and managing online groups, you can earn crypto rewards while contributing to the improvements of the platform.

How to Claim a Bonus on KEYNODE: A Simple Guide

Enter your username followed by “Million Bounty” on the first line.
Provide your email address on the second line.
Share the link to your social media post on the third line.
Submit the information to the Support team for review.
Approved bonuses will be issued weekly on Tuesdays and Fridays.

2. Binance: A Trusted Powerhouse in Crypto

It will be in 2025 when Binance, one of the biggest and most reputable cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, will still head in cryptocurrency staking. Offering flexibility and a vast selection of supported cryptocurrencies, Binance is an ideal platform for users looking for reliable passive income.

Why Binance Is a Top Contender:

Flexible Staking Options: Whether you prefer flexible or locked staking, Binance offers both, catering to all types of investors.
High Liquidity: Binance’s massive user base ensures high liquidity, making it easy to stake and unstake your assets at any time.

3. Kraken: Secure and User-Friendly

For those seeking a straightforward and highly secure staking experience, Kraken is a top choice in 2025. Kraken is well-known for its strict rules and strong security measures. It makes staking easy for both new and experienced investors.

Why Kraken Stands Out:

Top-Tier Security: Kraken is famous for its robust security measures, ensuring your assets are always protected.
24/7 Support: Kraken provides round-the-clock customer support, ensuring assistance is available whenever you need it.

4. Coinbase: A Beginner’s Best Friend

For new investors in the field of cryptocurrency, Coinbase provides one of the easiest and most trusted platforms for a beginner to start staking. With its user-friendly design and robust security features, Coinbase makes it simple to grow your crypto holdings passively.

5. Gemini: Regulated and Reliable

Gemini is a regulated U.S. exchange that provides a secure and user-friendly platform for staking a variety of cryptocurrencies. Gemini is a great option for people who want a safe and secure way to stake their assets, as it’s well-known for following rules and keeping things protected.

Why Gemini Deserves a Spot:

Reliable Rewards: Staking rewards on Gemini range from 2% to 6% annually, with reliable payouts.
Strong Security: Gemini’s advanced security features provide peace of mind, ensuring your funds are always protected.

6. Staked: Optimized for Proof-of-Stake

Staked is an advanced platform designed specifically for staking Proof-of-Stake (PoS) assets. Dedicated to providing high yields and professional management, Staked is suitable for users intending to maximize returns out of their PoS tokens.

Why Staked is a Strong Option:

Expert Management: Staked provides professional-grade management for your staking assets, ensuring maximum efficiency and reliability.
High Yields: Staked offers some of the highest yields in the industry, particularly for PoS coins like Solana, Cosmos, and more.

7. Crypto.com: A One-Stop Crypto Ecosystem

Crypto.com continues to expand its ecosystem, offering not only staking but also trading, lending, and a crypto-backed debit card. If you want a place where you can manage your whole crypto portfolio, Crypto.com has got you covered.

Why Crypto.com Is Worth Your Attention:

Attractive Rewards: Crypto.com offers competitive rewards, with yields ranging from 4% to 12% on various coins.
Loyalty Programs: The platform’s loyalty program offers additional bonuses for users who hold the native CRO token.

8. Exodus: A Staking Wallet for the Mobile Generation

Exodus is a well-known wallet app for phones and computers. It lets users earn rewards by staking different types of cryptocurrencies directly from their wallets.Known for its intuitive interface, Exodus is perfect for users who want to stake on the go.

Why Exodus Stands Out:

Mobile-Friendly: Exodus is designed with mobile users in mind, making it easy to stake from anywhere.
Low Fees: Exodus offers competitive fees, making it a cost-effective choice for staking smaller amounts.

Conclusion: Maximize Your Earnings in 2025

Choosing the right cryptocurrency staking platform can significantly impact the returns you earn on your investments. With Keynode marching the way, among this top 8, everything from the most high-yield to the easiest use and the rock-solid protection is available. So, which platform will you choose to take your crypto staking experience to the next level? Let the journey to passive income begin!

Disclaimer: This is a paid release. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily represent those of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist does not guarantee the accuracy or timeliness of information available in such content. Do your research and invest at your own risk.