APAC tax teams that engage proactively with authorities can still face difficult decisions on how to approach their compliance obligations in different countries.
More Than Half Of All Bitcoin Trades Are Fake Forbes Digital Assests – “A new Forbes analysis of 157 crypto exchanges finds that 51% of the daily bitcoin trading volume being reported is likely bogus. Within the emerging and turbulent market for cryptocurrencies, where there are no fewer than 10,000 tokens, bitcoin, is the great granddaddy, the blue-chip, representing 40% of the $1 trillion in crypto assets outstanding. Bitcoin is crypto’s gateway drug. An estimated 46 million adult Americans already own it according to New York Digital Investment Group, and an increasing number of institutional investors and corporations are warming to the nascent alternative asset.
But can you trust what your crypto exchange or e-brokerage reports about trading in the most important digital currency? One of the most common criticisms of bitcoin is pervasive wash trading (a form of fake volume) and poor surveillance across exchanges. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission defines wash trading as “entering into, or purporting to enter into, transactions to give the appearance that purchases and sales have been made, without incurring market risk or changing the trader’s market position.” The reason why some traders engage in wash trading is to inflate the trading volume of an asset to give the appearance of rising popularity. In some cases trading bots execute these wash trades in tokens, increasing volume, while at the same time insiders reinforce the activity with bullish remarks, driving up the price in what is effectively a pump and dump scheme.
Wash trading also benefits exchanges because it allows them to appear to have more volume than they actually do, potentially encouraging more legitimate trading.
There is no universally accepted method of calculating bitcoin daily volume, even among the industry’s most reputable research firms. For instance, as of this writing, CoinMarketCap puts the latest 24-hour trading of bitcoin at $32 billion, CoinGecko at $27 billion, Nomics at $57 billion and Messari at $5 billion. Adding to the challenges are persistent fears about the solvency of crypto exchanges, underscored by the public collapses of Voyager and Celsius. In an exclusive interview with Forbes in late June, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried commented that there are many exchange bankruptcies yet to come. A significant repercussion of this lack of faith in its underlying markets is the Security and Exchange Commission’s refusal to approve a spot bitcoin ETF…”
“With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets — to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events — we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected,” said Treasurer Jim Chalmers.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) formed a new cryptocurrency unit to focus on crypto-related transactions, reported The Australian Financial Review. The step is in line with the policy of Australian law enforcement to monitor crypto-related transactions closely.
Stefan Jerga, the national manager of the AFP’s Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT), commented on the matter at hand. He stated that crypto usage for crimes has significantly increased since the authorities made their first crypto seizure in 2018.
Additionally, AFP released a press release on 5 September which mentioned how the AFP delivered a significant blow to organized crime. The organization restrained over $600 million in criminal assets in the last three years.
The CACT has confiscated $380 million in residential and commercial properties. The task force also seized $200 million in cash and bank accounts, and $35 million in cars, boats, aircraft, cryptocurrency, artwork, and other luxury items.
In 2020, Commissioner Reece Kershaw set a target of confiscating $600 million within the next five years( by 2024). However, the agency has achieved its target much ahead of time.
How Australian police is combating criminals through cryptocurrency
Editor’s note: Images of items seized by the AFP and radio grabs by National Manager Criminal Assets Confiscation Stefan Jerga are available via Hightail.
Cryptic 4,000-year-old writing system may finally be deciphered LiveScience. Linear Elamite stans rejoice!
Reporting from Kangaroo 🦘 Isle: A South Australian restaurant owner has been sentenced to five years and three months in jail after being found guilty of fraudulently obtaining $613,262 in GST refunds.
Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, August 27, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly complex and wide ranging ways technology is used to compromise and diminish our privacy and online security, often without our situational awareness. Five highlights from this week: Video scans of students’ rooms during online tests ruled unconstitutional; TikTok’s In-App Browser Includes Code That Can Monitor Your Keystrokes, Researcher Says; Google Flagged Parents’ Photos of Sick Children as Sexual Abuse; Third-party app attacks: Lessons for the next cybersecurity frontier; and Russia’s ‘Oculus’ to use AI to scan sites for banned information.
Graduates of Elite Universities Dominate the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Study Finds The Intercept. That’s why reporting should be a trade, not a profession.
Chomsky’s puzzling PR strategy Carl Beijer
‘Do Not Drink The Water’: Jackson Water System Failing For 180,000 People Mississippi Free Press
The AI Researcher Giving Her Field Its Bitter Medicine Quanta. Tenser, said the Tensor.
