More investors in block.one’s EOS initial coin offering have launched legal action in an attempt to recover $200 million that was allegedly raised illegally. 

According to the plaintiffs, EOS’s ICO, which raised a record-breaking $4 billion, constituted an unregistered security offering by block.one – the development company that led the ICO. 

Despite the terms of the purchase agreements specifically prohibiting US investors from participating in the ICO, some US-based investors did participate, leading the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to get involved. 

Block.one, which has offices in Hong Kong and Virginia, did not register the ICO in the US, either as a security or under the available exemptions, and denies it targeted US-based investors. 

However, the plaintiffs disagree, alleging the firm actively courted US investors – pointing to the fact that block.one announced itself at a May 2017 conference in New York City, and even purchased expensive ad space on a billboard in Times Square. 

In April, law firm Roche Cyrulnik Freedman also filed a number of class-action lawsuits against several crypto firms, including block.one. 

AYO.NEWS says:

The US is becoming a real problem for many crypto firms, with an avalanche of class action lawsuits from investors and plenty of heat from regulators like the SEC. Though they are unlikely to sink projects, their expense, time and negative press generated by long-drawn out legal actions is going to be a massive distraction from driving innovation and adoption.

Only yesterday we reported that Seychelles-based cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX, and its executives, are facing a lawsuit in California, for alleged racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud, and unlicensed money transmission. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Atari has partnered with global monetisation platform and multichain blockchain API and wallet provider Arkane Network. 

The deal will see Arkane integrate Atari’s cryptocurrency in its offering and will support the Atari Token and the company’s strategic objective to boost adoption throughout the interactive entertainment ecosystem. 

Arkane is a blockchain platform for game developers, allowing them to create, secure, and monetise their digital game assets. The platform will now support the Atari Token, enabling developers to use it as in-game currency for buying, selling, and trading assets. 

Discussing the news CSO & Co-Founder of Arkane, Tim Dierckxsens, said:

“Atari has always been a pioneer in the video game industry and it is great to see how they understand blockchain technology’s increasing role in the development of the economic landscape within video games and entertainment.

“With this partnership, we will bring game developers, the gaming community, and the Atari Brand together to embrace blockchain technology as a solution to record digital assets and value transactions”

The Atari Token is issued by Atari Chain, Ltd (Gibraltar), which is jointly owned by Atari and the ICICB Group. 

AYO.NEWS says:

As we’ve said before, it’s great to see such an iconic legacy brand as Atari is embracing blockchain and tokenisation to stay relevant. The possibilities offered by tokenisation and digital assets in the gaming space are only just beginning to be appreciated, but we’ve got a feeling it will end up being one of the biggest drivers of blockchain adoption. 

Staying with Atari, in April we reported the company had announced plans to launch Atari Casino – a new online gambling platform supporting the Atari Token. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX, and its executives, are facing a lawsuit for alleged racketeering, money laundering, wire fraud and unlicensed money transmission.

Deliberately designed for illegal activities?

In a lawsuit filed by BMA LLC in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on 16 May, BitMEX was accused of being “deliberately designed, from the ground up” to aid or abet in a “myriad of illegal activities.” 

The top of executives of HDR Global Trading, BitMEX’s parent company, including Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samule Reed, are also individually accused of engaging in, or abetting, the crimes in the lawsuit, with the plaintiff saying the magnitude of the illegality committed at BitMEX is “truly staggering.”

Biggest unlicensed money transmission crime in US history?

Though HDR trading is listed in the Seychelles, the lawsuit was brought in California because BMA LLC claim that BitMEX’s executives have close connections to the state, and the Northern District. Backing this up, the plaintiff has cited sources claiming that almost 15% of BitMEX’s trading volume, which was around $138 billion, involved US-based traders – something BitMEX vigorously denies. 

If the accusations are true, it could mean that BitMEX handled around $3 billion of money transfers each day, despite not being licensed as a money transmission business in the United States – which would mean BitMEX was guilty of the biggest crime of its kind in US history. 

The plaintiff also accused HDR Trading of registering in the Seychelles solely to avoid scrutiny, quoting Hayes himself as having said the company had been registered there because it was cheaper to bribe officials than in the United States. 

To give some perspective on this point, despite popular misconceptions, according to Transparency International, the level of corruption in the Seychelles is not high – with the country ranking at 27th out of 180 (with 1 being least corrupt, and 180 being most corrupt). This places it far above countries like Malta, the EU-member state and iGaming/blockchain hub, which ranked 50th. 

Allegation after allegation…

But it doesn’t end there. BMA LLC has also accused BitMEX and its executives of racketeering, cryptocurrency market manipulation, wire fraud and many other illegal activities. 

Specifically, the lawsuit claims the way BitMEX operates allows manipulators and money launderers to operate with ease, enabling them to run an unlimited number of anonymous and unverified accounts, subject to no limits. 

It is also claimed that BitMEX deliberately uses fake technical problems, like system overloads and crashes to ensure it can control which specific trading orders are completed during volatile market conditions, and to manipulate price fluctuations and trigger liquidations. 

The exchange is also accused of operating its own for-profit trading desk, that trades against BitMEX’s own customers, making use of inside information. The fact that BitMEX admitted insider trading in April 2018 won’t help their defence on this point. 

In all, there are more than 100 pages of specific allegations in the lawsuit. 

AYO.NEWS says:

BitMEX and its executives, especially Arthur Hayes, are no stranger to controversy, but clearly the sheer scale and seriousness of the accusations in this lawsuit have the potential to sink the exchange entirely, and change the lives of its executives. 

With BitMEX also being sued by early investors to the tune of $540 million, the pressure really is mounting on the company. As with all these cases in the United States, it’s sure to be a long-drawn out process, but there will be millions of people watching it closely… 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

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Social blogging platform Reddit’s ETH-based Community Points rewards are proving a hit with Fortnite players. 

Since being rolled out on the Rinkeby testnet over two subreddit communities covering Fortnite (r/fortniteBR) and and cryptocurrency (r/cryptocurrency), between 13 and 15 May, more than 80% of the wallets created have been from the Fortnite community. 

Points earned by each subreddit will have their own unique name. The cryptocurrency subreddit points are called ‘Moons’, while those for the Fornite subreddit are called ‘Bricks.’ Reddit has said it plans to distribute 50 million Moons initially, with a total cap of 250 million. 

Apparently, within three days of launch, over 10K users had signed up, with the vast majority to hold r/fortniteBR’s Bricks, and just over 2K to hold r/cryptocurrency’s Moons. Transaction activity from both groups was identical so far. 

Reddit is planning to migrate its ERC-20 based Community Points scheme from the Rinkeby testnet to the Ethereum mainnet later this year, though no schedule has been provided for its rollout to the entire 450 million user base. 

In general the Ethereum community seems to be welcoming Reddit’s Community Points, seeing it as a potential significant adoption driver, though some have raised concerns it may cause Gas prices to surge. 

AYO.NEWS says:

We’d hazard a guess the much larger uptake from Reddit’s Forntite community compared to its crypto community is probably due to “toke fatigue” and cynicism among those who are more familiar with the crypto world. Still, considering the sheer size of Reddit’s user base, its Community Points scheme has the clear potential to drive adoption significantly. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Open interest on Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin options has exploded over the last week or so, surging over 1,000%. 

Data from Skew, the cryptocurrency markets data analytics and trade execution services company, shows open interest climbing to $142 million in the first half of May. Open interest is the sum of all the contracts at the time that have not expired, been exercised or physically delivered. 

Though there were notable spikes on 5 and 6 May, trading normalised immediately before the Bitcoin (BTC) halving on 11 May, only to rocket to $17 million on the day itself, and then surge to between $30m and $40m in the days since. 

Institution investment in Bitcoin (BTC) had been growing steadily during the runup to the halving, with major players like Grayscale and Fidelity Digital increasing their positions, but the scale of this spike may surprise many. 

CME #bitcoin options open interest is up 10x this month pic.twitter.com/D7tIpx5t8B

— skew (@skewdotcom) May 15, 2020

AYO.NEWS says:

The massive increase in open interest on Chicago Mercantile Exchange Bitcoin options could well reflect the growing expectation of a massive COVID-19 lockdown-induced economic crash in traditional markets, much more than a reaction to the halving. 

As we’ve previously speculated, with analysts around the world warning of an economic downturn unprecedented in modern times, we could be approaching the ‘moment of truth’ for Bitcoin (BTC). 

Staying with Bitcoin and the halving, as we reported a few days ago, when the 629,000 block was mined, an ominous message was inserted by f2pool. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020

Leetify, the Swedish AI coaching platform developer, has raised €900,000 in seed funding, in a round led by Finnish tech fund Inventure. 

Other investors in the round, which exceeded the company’s €864,000 target, included Swedish venture capital firm J12 Ventures, and Danish early-stage venture firm Futuristic.vc. 

Founded by Anders Ekman (CEO) and Vitalii Zurian (CTO), Leetify uses artificial intelligence to automatically analyse Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches for players, covering things like aim, positioning, utility usage, recoil control, counter strafing, and crosshair placement, and provides tailored in-game practice. 

Despite only launching in September 2019, the company says it now has 10,000 active monthly users on the platform. The company says it intends to use the newly raised capital to accelerate its growth by improving products and expanding its team. 

AYO.NEWS says:

With esports turning into big business, and no shortage amatuer players around the world setting their sights on turning pro and building their careers as athletes, we can imagine there’s plenty of scope for growth and expansion for Leetify. 

‘AYO.NEWS says’ features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited or its affiliates or associates. 

All original content featured on this site is © Pentagon Digital Limited, 2020