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“If Tom or anybody else wanted to be in this field, I would say, ‘Do it within the law,’” SEC Chair Gary Gensler iterated.
WSJ debacle fueled US lawmakers’ ill-informed crusade against crypto
The Wall Street Journal corrected its misreporting about crypto funding Hamas, but it was too late to stop lawmakers from amplifying false claims.
Wall Street Journal corrects article misciting Hamas’ crypto terrorism funding data
Elliptic, the firm which Wall Street Journal sourced the data from, said it was “pleased” to see the news outlet acknowledge its mistakes.
Media Reported Hamas Got Millions Via Crypto, but the Data Provider They Cited Says It Was Misconstrued
After Hamas’ deadly attacks in Israel, media reports linked the terrorist group with tens of millions in crypto donations, but that data was misinterpreted and hugely exaggerated, according to the blockchain analytical firm that was cited.
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Elliptic’s statement was framed as a rebuttal to recent articles and letters circulating among the media and U.S. lawmakers this month.
Sequoia slashes its crypto fund by 66% after industry collapses: Report
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A leaked investor call from Morgan Creek Digital suggests BlockFi liquidated 3AC for $1 billion, while Celsius reportedly maintained a highly risky assets-to-equity ratio last year that may have caused its recent liquidity woes.
The Wall Street Journal Is Dead Wrong About The NFT Market’s Supposed Collapse
The NFT market is thriving, actually. Once again, the Wall Street Journal makes a fool of itself by tackling subjects beyond the publication’s comprehension. The author declares “the NFT market is collapsing,” citing suspicious numbers and two cases of bad trades as proof. And then, to top it all off poses a terrible theory. The “NFT Sales Are Flatlining” article is embarrassing beyond belief.
Disclaimer: The following op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.
Among other things, it proposes the worst definition of NFTs ever written:
“NFTs are bitcoin-like digital tokens that act like a certificate of ownership that live on a blockchain.”
No, NFTs are not “bitcoin-like” at all. And the WSJ just forgot about the “non-fungible” aspect of these unique digital assets. And yes, someone bought an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $2.9M, another person bought a Snoop Dogg endorsed one for $32K. Both tried to auction the digital assets and only got embarrassingly low offers. Based on those two cases, the WSJ implies that the whole NFT market is dead on the water.
THE DEATH OF NFTs…
One buyer purchased a Snoop Dog curated NFT in early April for about $32,000 worth of the cryptocurrency ether. It's now up for auction, with an asking price of $25.5 million.
The highest current bid is for 0.0743 ether—about $210.https://t.co/dg54XYijxh
— Steven Russolillo (@srussolillo) May 3, 2022
The WSJ bogus numbers about the NFT Market
Admittedly, the Wall Street Journal probably has access to a wider array of data than NewsBTC. However, the numbers they use to prove the NFT market is dead are suspicious as hell.
“The sale of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September, according to the data website NonFungible.
The number of active wallets in the NFT market fell 88% to about 14,000 last week from a high of 119,000 in November.”
Notice that they don’t link to NonFungible and provide a few low-resolution graphs that the normal eye can’t audit. However, everyone can go to NonFungible. The number of sales for May 3rd is 104.465 and that represents $206B. Hardly the signs of a dead NFT market. Granted, the number of sales for April 3rd is approximately 14K, but on May 1st the NFT market moved a whooping $778B in 117K sales.
That’s not it. The WSJ also presents these stats as if they prove its case:
“The imbalance between supply and demand is also hurting the NFT market. There are about five NFTs for every buyer, according to data from analytics firm Chainalysis. As of the end of April, there have been 9.2 million NFTs sold, which were bought by 1.8 million people.”
Have they even been to OpenSea? There are hundreds of collections. And NFT aficionados own dozens of pieces. Sometimes, hundreds. Sometimes, thousands. And that’s just one platform that serves one blockchain. Five NFTs for every buyer is nothing.
ETH price chart for 05/04/2022 on Coinbase | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The Wall Street Journal’s Off The Mark Theory
This might be the most ridiculous part of the article. Let’s let the author bury himself:
“There are signs that collectors may also differentiate between NFTs that catalog a vast set of cartoonlike characters—like the CryptoPunks—and tailored, NFT art projects spurred by major artists who already enjoy museum followings.”
And then he talks about Jeff Koons and Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang, who sold out NFT collections, and director Kevin Smith, who’s planning to. Meanwhile, Moonbirds set the NFT market on fire and the Bored Ape’s Otherside literally broke Ethereum. We’re talking billions of dollars for the “cartoonlike characters” team. Not only that, The Nightly Mint points us towards Nansen’s numbers.
6/ Taking a look at NFT Paradise, volume is robust – the last two weeks are both set to be among the top-10 in history (measured in ETH).
Users per Week and Transactions per Week are likewise looking to reverse downtrends that began at the start of the year. pic.twitter.com/edNKzddMQW
— Nansen
(@nansen_ai) May 3, 2022
They clearly show that “the last two weeks are both set to be among the top-10 in history (measured in ETH).” And that “the Blue Chips and Social sectors are on a tear, up 81% and 83% YTD.”
So, what game is the Wall Street Journal playing? Is this a case of poor research or evidence of malicious intent? That’s for you to decide, dear reader.
Featured Image by Philip Strong on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView
WSJ says ‘the NFT market is collapsing’ but the data says otherwise
An article by the WSJ suggesting the non-fungible token (NFT) market is “collapsing” doesn’t show the full picture as contrasting analysis reveal a consolidation is instead taking place.
The Man Behind Helix, A Bitcoin Mixer, Pleads Guilty To Laundering Over $300M
Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers and here’s proof. 38-years-old Larry Dean Harmon admitted to being the operator of Helix, a Bitcoin Mixer service that operated on the Darknet. According to the US Department of Justice, “Harmon advertised Helix to customers on the Darknet to conceal transactions from law enforcement.” What was this man thinking?
Related Reading | DIY Bitcoin ATM Money Launderer Pleads Guilty
The press release continues:
Harmon admitted that Helix partnered with several Darknet markets, including AlphaBay, Evolution, Cloud 9 and others, to provide bitcoin money laundering services for market customers. In total, Helix moved over 350,000 bitcoin – valued at over $300 million at the time of the transactions – on behalf of customers, with the largest volume coming from Darknet markets. Harmon further admitted that he conspired with Darknet vendors and marketplace administrators to launder such bitcoins generated through illegal drug trafficking offenses on those Darknet marketplaces.
The blockchain sees it all and registers every transaction forever. A mixer, also known as a tumbler, is a service that seeks to anonymize transactions. They pool together funds from several parties, mix them up, and serve supposedly clean coins to everyone involved. At the very least, the coins can’t be traced to a specific address. For that, they charge a fee.
BTC price chart for 08/19/2021 on Currency.com | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Even Helix Didn’t Know How Much It Was Laundering. And Bitcoin Is Money
Betraying everything that’s sacred, Larry Dean Harmon’s defense was that he wasn’t guilty because Bitcoin is not money. The law went on the record and confirmed what Bitcoiners have been saying for years, the Washington Post reports:
A line of reasoning rejected by Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell.“ ‘Money,’ ” she wrote, “commonly means a medium of exchange, method of payment, or store of value. Bitcoin is these things.”
That’s on the record. The law knows that Bitcoin is money.
In any case, one thing about mixers is that there are no humans involved in the process. The system does it all. In Helix’s case, apparently, no one even knew how much money they were laundering. Bitcoin.com quotes Harmon’s defense attorney Charles Flood:
“One interesting thing about this case is there was a double-blind system Harmon had set up with Helix,” Flood said in the federal courtroom on Wednesday. “While he completely acknowledges that he violated the law and was in fact laundering money and knew it was drug proceeds … he does not know the exact amount laundered,” Flood added.
What Will The Law Do With Larry Dean Harmon?
For the punishment, we quote once again the original press release:
As part of his plea, Harmon also agreed to the forfeiture of more than 4,400 bitcoin, valued at more than $200 million at today’s prices, and other seized properties that were involved in the money laundering conspiracy. Harmon will be sentenced at a date to be determined and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, a term of supervised release of not more than three years, and mandatory restitution.
Ouch.
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This all leads to our original statement, Bitcoin is not a useful tool for money launderers. Or for criminals in general. To drive the point home, the Wall Street Journal quotes Ari Redbord. He’s “a former assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia and a former senior adviser at Treasury,” and says:
The guilty plea shows U.S. law enforcement is pursuing cryptocurrency mixers with connections to the Darknet and illicit activities, while the transparency of blockchain enables them to trace the funds.
“The nature of cryptocurrency is to allow law enforcement to have unique visibility on financial flow where they never had before.”
And that’s another thing Bitcoiners have been saying all along.
Featured Image by Ryan McGuire from Pixabay – Charts by TradingView
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