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airdropsandcryptonews · 4 years

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Cuba’s exploding crypto interest comes amid an absence of regulation

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Cuba’s exploding crypto interest comes amid an absence of regulation

Cuba is seeing an influx of cryptocurrency activity amid an apparent absence of related regulation in the country, according to senior executives at local crypto firms.

In early November, Cuba recorded a major spike in Bitcoin (BTC)-related Google queries, indicating an increase in crypto activity in the country. Founders of major local crypto exchanges Qbita and Bitremesas told Cointelegraph that their platforms have seen increased activity in recent months.

Erich Garcia, the creator of Bitremesas, told Cointelegraph that the platform has been steadily growing this year, seeing a notable influx in user activity. “By now, the use of the service is increasing at 200% every month,” Garcia said.

“Bitcoin usage and volume in Cuba is exploding right now,” said Mario Mazzola, founder of the Qbita exchange. According to the executive, Qbita’s trading volumes in October were equal to the total volumes of July, August and September combined.

However, the regulatory status of crypto-related activity is not yet defined in Cuba, both executives noted. Amid this regulatory uncertainty, a number of entrepreneurs are moving into crypto, Garcia claimed:

“[Right] now, the cryptocurrency in Cuba is not regulated, the government just doesn’t consider these coins as real money so far. Then, many entrepreneurs are migrating their commerce to this global and more powerful currency.”

Qbita’s Mazzola said that cryptocurrency in Cuba is “totally deregulated,” while at the same time, the local government has endorsed crypto as a means to circumvent sanctions. He said:

“In Cuba, cryptos are totally deregulated. They are neither legal or illegal. […] In fact, on several occasions, representatives of the Cuban government hinted on TV that authorities look at crypto favorably, as they understand that crypto may be a powerful weapon against the U.S. embargo.”

As there is still no concrete legal status for crypto in Cuba, the operation of local crypto exchanges could raise regulatory questions, but Qbita’s founder is confident that local crypto businesses are not in danger because there is also no law explicitly prohibiting them from operating.

“Such P2P transactions are perfectly legal because in Cuba there is no law that forbids people to buy, hold, use and sell Bitcoin to another person,” Mazzola said.

According to Mazzola, local monetary reforms could be one of the major reasons behind rising crypto interest in Cuba. The Cuban government plans to eliminate its dual currency-based economic model, removing the Cuban convertible peso and keeping the Cuban peso. Mazzola said:

“The rise of BTC in Cuba is due to the fact that the government announced recent major monetary reforms, which involve currency unification (CUC goes away, CUP stays) and devaluation of CUP vs. the U.S. dollar. As a result people are using Bitcoin to avoid inflation and the negative impact of devaluation on their savings.”

As previously reported, growing crypto interest in Cuba is also partially a response to the lack of digital financial services in the country. Major companies like PayPal and Stripe do not provide services for Cuban nationals due to sanctions by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC.

The limits on Cuba’s access to financial services extend not only to traditional payment firms, but also global crypto companies like Paxful and LocalBitcoins. Jukka Blomberg, chief marketing officer at Finland-based LocalBitcoins, said:

“Cuba is on OFAC sanction list and we have contractual obligations with some of our partners, which means that we cannot operate in Cuba. Not sure if this will change anytime in future, however, unfortunately currently this is the situation.”

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jacobhinkley · 6 years

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Famous Thai Actor Arrested For Being Allegedly Involved in 5,500 BTC Worth Crypto Scam

While the crypto market is continuing its rapid growth and development, more and more celebrities are joining the rows of crypto supporters and role models. Nevertheless, for a famous Thai actor his work with cryptos resulted into police intervention.

As it has been informed by the Thai media, Jiratpisit Jaravijit, also known as Boom, was arrested after allegations of his involvement in a money laundering scheme with Bitcoin. As a result of such a scam, a Finnish man lost $34 million.

In June 2017, the 22-year-old crypto millionaire from Finland became a victim of a scam scheme in which the actor together with other scammers took part. The victim was convinced to send a certain amount of money in Bitcoin to a number of addresses that were linked to the companies within the business venture.

The money should be allocated for investments into several Thai stocks, a casino in Macau as well as a new cryptocurrency called Dragon Coin – a crypto coin used in gaming platforms. The group explained Finnish businessman that after issuance, the Dragon Coin can be used to play at the casino. They also took him to a casino in Macau in order to show absolute legitimacy of the plan.

For the victim, the scheme seemed to be rather reliable and he decided to invest into the deal. As a result, he transferred 5,564 Bitcoins to the group and began waiting for good returns.

Nevertheless, some months later, when he saw no returns, he took a decision to file a complaint to Thailand’s Crime Suppression Division. He did it in January together with his local business partner who rightfully thought that the whole scheme was a scam.

After the investigations held by the Crime Suppression Division, it was alleged that the group of scammers hadn’t made any investments for their victim. Instead of fulfilling their obligations, they exchanged all the received Bitcoins into Thai baht. As it was investigated, these funds were deposited into seven bank accounts.

At the moment, it is not specified when the Bitcoin assets were sold, nevertheless, it is supposed that fraudsters managed to receive profits of approximately 800 million baht which is nearly $34 million. It’s worth mentioning that the sum of 5,564 Bitcoins, if taken at the price of the previous year’s high of more than $19,000, is equivalent to more than $100,000,000.

The Crime Suppression Division has also found out that the actor’s sibling Prinya Jaravijit was the head of the scheme. Nevertheless, earlier, he has managed to leave the country for the U.S. Currently, the authorities are working on establishing collaboration with the U.S. authorities to track him down.

Meanwhile, this is not the only case when cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, have been used as targets of crime. As it has been reported by CoinSpeaker, just recently, the British police found a crypto wallet with 295 Bitcoins while conducting the raid at the house of a criminal, who was charged for cannabis cultivation and money laundering. While the case with Thai celebrity remains to be open, the drug dealer had to part with all the Bitcoins seized.

The post Famous Thai Actor Arrested For Being Allegedly Involved in 5,500 BTC Worth Crypto Scam appeared first on CoinSpeaker.

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