Značka: Miami

Tom Brady and other celebrities named in class-action lawsuit against FTX

Former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried and a number of celebrities who endorsed FTX have been named in a class-action lawsuit filed on Nov. 15 in Miami. Implicated in the class-action lawsuit are celebrities, athletes and teams, including Tom Brady, Gisele Bundchen, Steph Curry, the Golden State Warriors, Shaquille O’Neal, Udonis Haslem, Larry David and all other parties who either “controlled, promoted, assisted in, and actively participated in” FTX Trading LTD and West Realm Shires Services Inc.According to the filed court documents, Edwin Garrison, the plaintiff, purchased and funded his account with a sufficient amount of crypto assets to earn interest on his holdings but “sustained damages” in the wake of FTX’s collapse. The lawsuit alleged that FTX attempted to destroy incriminating emails, texts and evidence of its criminal activities. However, the recovered evidence suggests that “FTX’s fraudulent scheme was designed to take advantage of unsophisticated investors from across the country, who utilize mobile apps to make their investments.”The lawsuit alleges that “American consumers collectively sustained over $11 billion dollars in damages.”Related: US reportedly considering Bankman-Fried extradition for questioningSince the collapse of FTX, many have called for the former CEO to face legal ramifications. As Cointelegraph reported, authorities in the United States have reportedly begun working with law enforcement in the Bahamas to potentially extradite SBF to the U.S. for questioning. FTX is already under investigation in the Bahamas where its FTX Digital Markets arm, as well as many company executives — including SBF — are located. Financial authorities in Turkey have also launched an investigation into the exchange.

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Boomer on the dancefloor! The 64 yr old Bitcoin breakdancer on investing

One of the world’s oldest competitive “breakers,” or breakdancers, is twisting and shouting Bitcoin (BTC) on dancefloors across the United States. Aged 64, Ben Hart told Cointelegraph he reckons he’s “the world’s oldest actively competing breaker.”For context, Gary Gensler, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC Chair, is the same age. But it’s unlikely Gensler will be shredding up the dancefloor wearing Bitcoin jerseys any time soon:Some are asking for more footage of me, the 64-year-old break dancer who wears a #Bitcoin shirt in all his breaking battles. Me last weekend in Chicago.Retweet if you like this! pic.twitter.com/oEVLa6Xh7k— Ben Hart (@BenHartBitcoin) August 21, 2022Hart took up breakdancing in 2011, amazed by the “athleticism” of the hip hop street dance. He recruited an expert to learn the ropes and spent years honing his skills in a sport incorporating flips, power moves and freezes. He took a similar approach to Bitcoin, which he first learned in 2014. He spent hundreds of hours studying the tech before buying his first Bitcoin in 2019. Hart took Gary Gensler’s MIT Course on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies and read the Bitcoin White Paper “at least ten times.” Plus, rather than going all in, Hart began by dollar-cost averaging into what he considers “the only truly decentralized cryptocurrency or asset out there.”As a result, when the price crashed at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020–and many sold–Hart bought more. His thorough education crystallized into a resolute conviction about the currency’s future. Furthermore, Hart explains “When the Fed launched its manic money printing in 2020 to start handing out free money to people (even way more money printing than usual), I thought this was the exact situation Bitcoin was designed for.”Bitcoin’s mission is to be honest money. So I started buying a lot more Bitcoin.Hart was hooked. So much so that he began wearing Bitcoin jerseys to breakdancing competitions and evangelized Bitcoin to his entourage, while steering them clear of trading and altcoins.More of the 64-year-old dude (me) representing #Bitcoin (new #BTC shirt) in Chicago breakdance battle.I think I’m the world’s oldest competing breaker.Can’t think of a better way to spend 8 hours on a Sunday. Retweet and follow if you like this. pic.twitter.com/He6iWE8IMX— Ben Hart (@BenHartBitcoin) August 24, 2022

“I basically think trading is a losers game. […] My advice to them is to take 10% of whatever they have to invest and buy Bitcoin. That’s what I tell my kids to do.”Hart told Cointelegraph that he tells his younger breaker peers to stop trading and “forget about the other cryptos for now.”Hart’s been spotted on dancefloors on TV shows such as Good Morning America, while he’s already 2stepped his way into the Bitcoin community. Cory Kliippsten, CEO of Swan Bitcoin, appears to have extended an invitation Hart’s way for Bitcoin conference Pacific Bitcoin in November this year. Related: Busking on Bitcoin: How Lightning Network outperforms Ethereum for tippingHart and his wife have six kids and split their time between Miami and Chicago. Besides breaking, he is now dedicating his time to Bitcoin education. He joins a growing list of Bitcoin Boomers–HODLers born between 1946 and 1964–while his first Bitcoin book is soon to be published. 

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WEF 2022: Bitcoin should be seen from an innovation perspective, says Miami mayor

Miami mayor Francis Suarez believes that Bitcoin (BTC) should be seen from an innovation perspective rather than just as an investment asset.Suarez’s comments came during his discussion on “The Future of Crypto” on the third day of the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF) 2022 at Davos. He said:“We live in a world where investors only look at things from a return perspective, but Bitcoin should be seen from an innovative and technology perspective.”When asked about his views on the volatility debate in the crypto market, Suarez said that the phenomenon is a part of the crypto ecosystem and has been common among evolving and nascent tech.  He reminded people that although the volatility debate seems to be prevalent only during a bear market, it plays a key role when the market is going up as well. He also claimed that the Bitcoin price would become stable over time when it would shift from being an asset class to a form of “currency.” He explained:“I will talk from the Bitcoin perspective since it’s the original cryptocurrency. Currently, it is behaving like an asset class, but over time it would move towards being a currency. Once its currency aspect takes center stage, I think the price will stabilize as well.”When enquired about the reason behind his support for BTC, Suarez said:“Who can we trust today? Politicians? The bankers or policymakers? This is where the likes of Bitcoin are making a mark, even though invented by a human it has been designed to follow a set of codes that cannot be altered.”Suarez was joined by Crypto Council for Innovation CEO Sheila Warren, who agreed with the Miami mayor on the Bitcoin debate and said “[Bitcoin] has proved its mettle by sustaining through several price cycles and its current price speaks volumes of its cycle.”

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Madeira ‘embraces’ Bitcoin and how the president met Michael Saylor

The tiny Portuguese island of Madeira has “adopted” Bitcoin (BTC) — but what does that mean? The announcement made during the Bitcoin Miami Conference in 2022 has spurned confusion and misinformation.The President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque, hopped onto the stage in April to announce that he believes in the “future of Bitcoin,” and that he would work to “create a fantastic environment for Bitcoin.” However, the details remained unclear. Cointelegraph spoke to André Loja, a Madeiran entrepreneur who spearheaded the plan to bring Bitcoin to the archipelago in the Atlantic ocean to find out how Bitcoin is shaping the islands’ development.The island of Madeira exploded onto the Bitcoin world map on April 7, when Samson Mow proudly announced that Madeira “will be adopting Bitcoin.” Upon the announcement, news outlets around the world reported that Madeira had adopted Bitcoin as legal tender. However, this was not the case. Loja explained to Cointelegraph that prior to Samson Mow’s announcement, Loja would have preferred to use the phrasing “Madeira is embracing Bitcoin.”“We embrace it, we support it. We are not ‘adopting’ Bitcoin because adopting looks like we were making it legal tender when it’s already de facto legal.”Indeed, in Madeira and across Portugal — 1,000 km northeast of the island — there is zero tax on Bitcoin capital gains. That means any disposal, spending, or use of Bitcoin does not need to be declared to tax authorities by the island’s 250,000 people.Loja orange-pilled the president of Madeira just a few weeks prior to the conference, sharing his vision for Bitcoin as not only a means to attract foreign investment, but to “protect my island from the fiat system.” By happenstance, Albuquerque came to visit Loja’s coworking space — one of the few places that accept Bitcoin in Madeira — and Loja jumped at the opportunity to share his passion for Bitcoin. Madeira was kneecapped by the COVID-19 pandemic as critical tourism revenue fell off a cliff. Loja, therefore, presented a Bitcoin future to the president as a means to diversify and restructure Madeira’s economy, among other advantages. Albuquerque was reportedly  open to the idea, so Loja quickly sought the help of Bitcoiners around the world, including Daniel Prince, a renowned Bitcoin podcaster; Jeff Booth, the author of The Price of Tomorrow, and even Michael Saylor, CEO of Microstrategy. Within weeks, the Bitcoiner all-star team had contacted the organizers of Bitcoin Miami 2022 to organize the president’s appearance on stage. Ultimately, having the head of state of an autonomous region endorse Bitcoin was an opportunity too big to miss. Upon landing in Miami, Loja and Albuquerque were invited to Saylor’s flashy Miami villa, “with the yachts and everything,” Loja jokes. While Loja had already orange-pilled the president, the conversation with Saylor was on another level:“Michael Saylor sat down with president Albuquerque and well […] It was more like he sat down with his head!”Saylor told Albuquerque that “you need to focus on Bitcoin. Everything else is garbage.” A conversation the president is unlikely to forget, the seminar was sufficient preparation for him to step on stage in front of 25,000 Bitcoin enthusiasts. Loja explained that the announcement that Madeira is adopting Bitcoin would “kickstart an intention” for Madeira to become an island in which Bitcoin prospers alongside the people. For Loja, who has already translated popular Bitcoin books into Portuguese, “It starts with education: the most important thing.”Loja (far right), President Albuquerque (center with book) and Knut Svanholm (far left) in Madeira in May 2022. Source: LojaIndeed, Loja cut his teeth during the bear market of 2018. A passionate educator, Loja works closely with other educators in the space, such as Knut Svanholm,  author of Bitcoin: Everything Divided by 21 Million, to teach the principles of sound money: “I have a lot of ideas, from kindergarten to schools to adults workshops — and to bring people from outside the island. The association will have the best people as consultants.”To this end, Loja is founding the Sound Money Foundation, a Bitcoin education center in Madeira. The center has support from Samson Mow and Jeff Booth, among others, and seeks to help locals to better understand cryptocurrency from a young age. Accompanying the education drive and the focus on improving “financial literacy,” Loja’s hometown also lures Bitcoin companies with attractive fiscal incentives. At the International Business Center, companies pay just 5% business tax, a highly competitive rate. Portugal was already a budding hub for individual Bitcoiners, but companies could now reap benefits Related: Bitcoin, Bukele and a bevy of central bankers meet in El SalvadorFurther down the road, Loja plans for the autonomous government of Madeira to mine Bitcoin with leftover renewable energy — as the island has abundant wind and sunlight — and even carry out “a multi-signature wallet for the government to work with Bitcoin financially.”Madeira’s international business center. Source: ibc-madeira.comAs a result, the government would take full custody of the Bitcoin it mines by taking control of the private keys. Loja highlighted that the electrical power grid is a standalone “public company,” so any Bitcoin mined by the grid would go into government multi-sig wallets.In essence, Madeira’s approach to Bitcoin goes above and beyond the lauded legal tender status. From public sector Bitcoin mining to education to state-run multi-sig wallets to having Michael Saylor on speed dial, the island is slowly steering towards a Bitcoin future. Unsurprisingly, Loja’s holistic approach to the island “embracing” Bitcoin has a low time preference.  

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Takeaways and reviews, what went down during Miami Tech Week

Miami Tech Week took place last week in the South Florida city as part of April’s Tech Month programming, which also included NFT Miami and the Bitcoin 2022 conference earlier in the month. Tech Week kicked off with the eMerge Americas conference and the myriad of panel discussions scheduled throughout the city that followed.Cointelegraph gathered some key insights from thought leaders who participated, and the two main themes are Miami as a hot spot for crypto folks, and crypto as a disruptor of the investment landscape.eMerge Americas is a venture-backed organization with a mission to position Miami as the tech hub of North and South America. Its signature event since 2014 has been the annual tech conference, which features a startup pitch competition. After a two-year hiatus, it returned to the Miami Beach Convention Center on April 18-19 with web3, crypto and NFT content. The crypto trading platform Blockchain.com was the 2022 title sponsor. Related: Crypto startup Blockchain​.com planning 2022 IPOPeter Smith, Blockchain.com’s chief executive officer and co-founder, sat on an eMerge panel to discuss the state of the crypto market. Afterwards he expanded on his bullish outlook when he told CNBC that he expects “crypto assets to rebound much faster than tech stocks and growth stocks” amid a current downtown in the market.Blockchain.com claims that it is the first crypto company to move its headquarters to Miami. Smith even tweeted out some reasons for that move on Thursday. His main motive was a “vibe” of genuine love of crypto from Miami’s residents.Reason 1: #Miami loves #Crypto. Not just Mayor @FrancisSuarez and local leadership, but actual people in Miami. Walking around the city, you find more people than anywhere else who are genuinely into building the next financial system, vs the last one (NYC)— Peter Smith (@OneMorePeter) April 21, 2022Another eMerge speaker was Melinda Delis, Director of Business Development at Gemini. During her panel about “Business Applications for Emerging Technologies” like NFTs, she revealed her clients’ main concerns when it comes to the Metaverse: “Custody. For these businesses to meet the standards of their internal risk and compliance teams, they need to check what is the security of the custodian, what are the controls around it, and how is it regulated.”Related: Crypto seen as the ‘future of money’ in inflation-mired countriesRegulation is a topic that Ripple’s chief executive officer, Brad Garlinghouse, had strong opinions on. During a panel programming at the Faena Forum Miami Beach on Friday, Garlinghouse mentioned on stage that Ripple (XRP) is currently in a lawsuit with Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, which alleges that Ripple conducted an illegal securities offering through sales of XRP. Ripple argues XRP should be treated as a virtual currency rather than as a stock.Garlinghouse advised audience members to “not incorporate a company in the U.S.” because the country “has been and continues to fall behind in terms of regulatory clarity. And investors don’t want to put money into uncertainty.” He even tweeted about his experience later that day.The SEC seems perfectly content to let the US fall further behind – all in the name of protecting their own jurisdiction at the expense of US citizens. Politics over policy is good for no one. We need a clear regulatory framework now.— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) April 22, 2022

Sitting next to Garlinghouse was Ivan Soto-Wright, co-founder and chief executive officer of MoonPay, the Miami-based crypto payment platform. When the moderator, Coinbase’s head of business operations and strategy Marc Bhargava, asked about the future of NFTs, Soto-Wright stated that “NFTs have now overtaken crypto.” He pointed to companies like Yuga Labs and CryptoPunks that have been able to monetize their brand value by “turning its intellectual property into a number on the income statement.” The next big wave of NFTs, he said, will be from major Web2 brands that “will monetize their legacy via NFTs.”He added that the process of purchasing an NFT, however, may still be a complicated process for the average “mom.” Even though Web3 promises decentralization, it’s still “at the cost of user experience,” and that streamlining peer-to-peer payments via wallets is the key to getting more people into crypto, according to Soto-Wright.From left, Marc Bhargava, Ivan Soto-Wright, Natalia Karayaneva and Brad Garlinghouse at the Faena Forum Miami Beach.Related: Dozens of VIP backers invest $87M into crypto payment startup MoonPayWhile the purpose of Miami Tech Week is to gather together startup founders and venture capitalists, the true motives behind the meetups, presentations and parties is to rub shoulders with potential investors and investees. Looking specifically into crypto investment numbers, $25.2 billion worth of venture capital funding went to global blockchain startups in 2021. So far in 2022, the industry has raised $5 billion in the first quarter, according to the latest PitchBook data.The Miami-Fort Lauderdale metro area alone collected more than $1 billion in general tech VC funding during Q1, according to Crunchbase. However, almost half of that billion was attained by Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT community, with its $450 million seed funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Crunchbase also pointed out that the most recently funded Miami companies tend to “skew heavily to the crypto/NFT/blockchain/metaverse sphere.”In regards to venture capital investment pouring into crypto companies, influencer and boxer turned investor Logan Paul, gave his thoughts while on stage at the Faena Forum Miami Beach. “Its not about money anymore, but about finding investors who bring added value,” said Paul. Sitting alongside Geoffrey Woo, his co-founder of the VC fund called Anti Fund, Paul added that “capital doesn’t buy you cultural relevance anymore,” and that the Anti Fund, which invests in early-stage startups, places priority on marketing and brand consulting services to differentiate itself. One man who has taken to marketing Miami as a pro-business and crypto-friendly city is  Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. Miami Tech Week would not be complete without appearances from its mayor at eMerge and other events. The organizers of the city-wide and crypto-related hackathons, Miami Hack Week, set up a free co-working space during Tech Week and held fireside chats with top VC’s & tech leaders, including the mayor. While on stage, Suarez said that a dedicated tech month is part of Miami’s rebranding, and that its tech ecosystem is being “refreshed by new faces,” especially those in the blockchain industry.“Miami is going to hack our way to the top in order to compete with the world.”What an honor to be joined by visionaries like @DavidSacks @shervin @jdanjohnson and @jefffluhr for “Not Another Fireside Chat” on the future of Miami Tech at Miami Hack Week! pic.twitter.com/WWJHsUmg6W— Mayor Francis Suarez (@FrancisSuarez) April 20, 2022

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From beer to Bitcoin as legal tender: a BTC education in Roatán

Few crypto enthusiasts around the world could point to the remote island of Roatán prior to the Bitcoin (BTC) 2022 conference in Miami. Dušan Matuska was one of them, a Bitcoin educator whose plans to open a Bitcoin education center in a former brewery entangled with the Satoshi Nakamoto-inspired vision of a special economic zone in Honduras called Próspera. Located on Roatán, Próspera accepts Bitcoin as a de facto legal tender as of April 2022. But, how did a Slovakian Bitcoin miner stumble across one of the few locations worldwide to accept Bitcoin as de facto legal tender? And, what does a brewery have to do with it?In late 2021, Matuska’s Bitcoin mining friends mentioned the Honduran isle of Roatan, explaining their intention to buy a few plots of land on the picture-perfect island. Given the success of neighboring country El Salvador and the Bitcoin Beach Bitcoin adoption story, as well as his personal mission to teach 100 million people about Bitcoin by 2030, Matuska’s curiosity was piqued. Matuska flew over from Paraguay, where he was investigating renewable Bitcoin mining operations, and quickly learned Roatán is a “nice small island in Honduras” that has “beautiful views.” It’s like a “hidden pearl of the Caribbean.” However, it’s small, so “after two weeks having a holiday there, you start to get bored.” “Since our mission is always to educate people about Bitcoin, we began cooking up ideas about a Bitcoin education center in Honduras.”In line with other Bitcoin grassroots projects around the world such as El Salvador and Portland, Oregon, while drawing from his own experience educating people about Bitcoin at crypto cafés in Eastern Europe, Matuska began scoping out centers for Bitcoin education. The Paralení Polis alternative education café in Prague, Czechia. The space became a Bitcoin education center. Source: GoogleA curious coincidence, Matuska is Slovakian — Czechs and Slovakians are close and share similar culture and histories — and Czech is the second-largest expat population on the island after the Americans. What’s more, an old Czech brewery had fallen into disarray. Related: Seven times Bitcoin miners made the world a better placeThe former Czech brewery appeared to be the ideal opportunity to rejuvenate a tired space and convert it into a place where visitors could learn about the world’s largest cryptocurrency. “It looked like a Bitcoin Citadel,” Matuska told Cointelegraph. The beers to Bitcoin story had begun.However, the size and scale of restoring a large and derelict brewery into an education center were daunting. When Matuska and the team “checked it out, the building was rotten and damaged.” Restoring the relic would cost “maybe hundreds of thousands of euros to put back to a normal state.” In another happy accident, the Próspera business event was taking place on the island, just around the corner. Próspera is a special economic zone in the center of Roátan that hosts its own civil law and regulatory structure. Próspera’s laws take inspiration from the hugely successful Shenzen economic zone in China, as well as Dubai.The Próspera special economic zone. Source: Prospera.hnMatuska left the brewery to take part in the conference buoyed by conversations he had about Honduras potentially adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. He explained that in Roatán in early 2022:“You could pay some taxes in Bitcoin; businesses were super open to accepting Bitcoin, or any other currency, because there is a huge amount of freedom in the whole area.”During the conference, a golden opportunity presented itself: Matuska was asked to discuss his work with Bitcoin and education. “I was thinking, okay, should I present the potential Honduras Bitcoin Education Center? Like, Is it okay or not? In the end, I decided I should.”Shortly after the presentation about the brewery to Bitcoin project, Erick Brimen, founder and CEO of the Próspera special economic zone, turned to Matuska. “Come with me,” he said.“Erick Brimen took me to a building at the highest viewpoint on Roatán in Pristine Bay. It’s an amazing building. Right now, there’s a school but it’s outgrown the building. In June, it’s going to be free. And. it’s going to be where we start building the center.”Forget the derelict brewery, an even better Bitcoin education center had fallen into Matuska’s lap. Moreover, Matuska got the nod from the CEO of the organization that was the driving force for Bitcoin as legal tender in Próspera.Visited Roatan island in Honduras last week to find a place for our future Bitcoin Education Center. We were offered this wonderful building in @Prosperahn to start in one of the most #Bitcoin friendly jurisdictions pic.twitter.com/6zrWpXAzJf— Dusan Matuska (@dusan_matuska) April 11, 2022Brimen explained to Cointelegraph that the Bitcoin education center in Próspera aligns with their key strategic objectives of identifying “100 cocreators that will be ‘hands on’ in activating a string of strategic projects.” “Dusan’s project is one of them, he’s co-creating something important to the jurisdiction by installing a Bitcoin education center. Decentralized finance is key and Bitcoin is a much better form of currency than traditional fiat. We want to enable that.”Upon seeing the new building and the scale of the project, Matuska’s brain went into overdrive. He needed to talk to his girlfriend, his colleagues, immigration authorities and airlines as they had just “a couple of weeks or months just to set it up and start to put everything together.”Matuska told Cointelegraph that the Próspera project was keen to do “everything on Bitcoin.” A deal was struck just weeks before Bitcoin 2022. During Samson Mow’s keynote speech at Bitcoin 2022, Bitcoin as a de facto legal tender was announced in Próspera, Honduras and Madeira, Portugal, while a Mexican senator shared ambitious Bitcoin plans for her country.The announcement made during Bitcoin 2022 in Miami. Source: YouTubeMatuska jokes that Bremen almost mentioned the Bitcoin education center during the keynote speech, but the time constraints of just “90 seconds on stage” didn’t quite allow for it.Related: Stablecoins are the perfect Trojan horse for Bitcoin, says Tether CTOBack in Honduras, the Bitcoin education center is growing in importance as part of Próspera’s and Brimen’s vision for Bitcoin. Ultimately, Bitcoin should be understood and used correctly.The view from the top of the Bitcoin education center in Próspera. Source: MatuskaBrimen told Cointelegraph that “it is not enough to simply make it legal,” as people should “have the tools available to them as well as the knowledge to use it optimally.” He continued:“Since it is considered legal tender, we want to enable people to not just have the right to use it but to use it responsibly.”Related: Building businesses in the ‘spirit of Bitcoin’: The Bitcoin HostelAs a result, Matuska is keen for Bitcoiners around the world to visit, reach out and be part of the change occurring in Honduras. “Próspera actually asked us to be the leaders in terms of onboarding businesses in Honduras, helping them out and setting everything up. For us, it’s a huge leap toward our vision of accelerating Bitcoinization. And, that’s why I just couldn’t say no.”“Lecturers from Czechia and Slovakia are flying out to teach,” but the team is still thin on the ground. As Brimen concludes, “to use Bitcoin to the maximum benefit possible,” they are going to need all the help they can get. The Próspera Bitcoin education center. Source: MatuskaAs for the former brewery that’s fallen into disrepair, Matuska told Cointelegraph that “maybe” in the future, there will be a Bitcoin-related project taking place there. It’d be a shame to let such a beautiful building go to waste. 

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Making Bitcoin legal tender is Mexico will be 'an uphill battle,' says Ricardo Salinas

During the Bitcoin 2022 Conference in Miami, Florida, Cointelegraph caught up with Ricardo Salinas, the founder and chairman at Grupo Salinas, in an exclusive sit-down interview. As an early Bitcoin (BTC) adopter, since its $200 days, Salinas has experienced first-hand the highs and lows of the market, and learned a thing or two along the way.[embedded content]Salinas started off the day as a panelist at the main stage of the Miami Beach Convention Center among fellow billionaires Orlando Bravo, Marcelo Claure and Dan Tapiero. In a discussion titled “Bitcoin Billionaire Capital Allocators,” Salinas disclosed that 60% of his portfolio is in Bitcoin, while the other 40% is a mix of oil and gas investments.From left, moderator Greg Foss, Marcelo Claure, Ricardo Salinas, Dan Tapiero and Orlando Bravo.That same day, April 7, fellow conference attendee Mexican senator Indira Kempis announced that she proposed legislation to make Bitcoin legal tender in Mexico. Mexico would follow El Salvador, Roatán, Honduras and Madeira, Portugal if it does go through with the legislation. When asked what he thought about this, Salinas said it’s “going to be an uphill battle” to make this happen because his country “unfortunately” has a mindset that is too attached to its control over fiat, or what he calls “fiat fraud.””The powers at the central bank and ministry of finance hate Bitcoin because of the freedom it represents and it’s a direct threat to their monopoly money.”As the founder of the Mexican bank, Banco Azteca, Salinas admits he’s part of a problematic system and reveals that he’d love for his bank to have access to bitcoin payments, deposits and lending. In the meantime, however, as the owner of the Elektra Group supermarket chain, he is currently working on enabling the retailers to accept Bitcoin payments for all items.Related: Lightning to strike Shopify merchants with addition of BTC paymentsWhile sitting with Cointelegraph, he said that Bitcoiners remain a small percentage of the total population and that there is still a long way to go before there is universal adoption. He also reminded viewers that no matter an investor’s age, the most important quality any investor can have is curiosity and the mental openness to continually learn.

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Crypto Biz: An eye-opening chat with Mr. Wonderful, April 7–13, 2022

The past seven days have reminded me of how lucky I am to have forged a career in the Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency industry. Cointelegraph sent a contingency of reporters to the Bitcoin conference in Miami, where we got to chop it up with billionaires, business leaders and hedge fund managers. I had the privilege of sitting down with Canadian businessman and Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, who actually revealed most of his crypto portfolio. I also got to interview Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone, who shed light on crypto market volatility, as well as Mark Yusko of Morgan Creek Capital. Yusko and I laughed at traditional 60/40 portfolio strategies, and I got to ask him a curious question: Who in their right mind is buying bonds today?This week’s Crypto Biz gives you a nice recap of Bitcoin 2022, as well as the latest funding and business news from the world of blockchain. Related: Bitcoin 2022 Miami: Conference recap and major themesMr. Wonderful Kevin O’Leary reveals his top crypto picksKevin O’Leary made it abundantly clear to Cointelegraph last week that Bitcoin and crypto are the future. There was so much I wanted to ask Mr. Wonderful, but I decided to keep it as succinct as possible, given that his entourage was hovering behind the set. O’Leary told the Bitcoin conference in Miami that BTC mining can actually save the world by incentivizing green energy production. I decided to pick his brain on this matter by asking for more concrete examples. I also asked him about stablecoin regulations, institutional appetite for digital assets and, of course, what his current crypto portfolio looks like (you’ll be surprised by the answer).BlackRock joins stablecoin issuer Circle’s $400M funding roundWatch what they do, not what they say. New York-based hedge fund manager BlackRock has thrown its weight behind stablecoin issuer Circle, leaving little doubts about its intentions to enter the crypto space. BlackRock, like several other firms, is backing Circle’s $400 million funding round, which is expected to close sometime this quarter. In February of this year, Circle officially minted its 50 billionth USD Coin (USDC), giving the company a nearly 30% share of the stablecoin market. BlackRock wants in on the action, probably because it recognizes the enormous potential of stablecoins in maintaining the United States dollar’s global hegemony. The asset manager has also been working behind the scenes to expand its footprint in the digital asset space. Pantera to close Blockchain Fund soon after raising $1.3B — double the targetCryptocurrency hedge fund manager Pantera Capital is about to close a massive $1.3 billion investment fund dedicated to early-stage blockchain startups — and you still think this crypto thing is a passing fad? The capital raise is more than double the $600 million Pantera initially pledged in May of last year, which was right around the time that altcoins were hitting record highs. Nearly a year later, and with crypto prices faltering relative to expectations, you’d expect institutional appetite for crypto to have waned. Not so. Smart money is actively looking to uncover the next major crypto and blockchain plays. They don’t care about short-term price action. Related: a16z’s Chris Dixon tops ‘Midas List’ by turning $350M into $6B in 2021MetaMask expands institutional offering by integrating new crypto custodiansDecentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are finally getting the tools to participate in the wider crypto economy. This week, leading wallet and browser extension MetaMask announced a strategic partnership with four crypto custodians — Gnosis Safe, Hex Trust, GK8 and Parfin — to enable DAOs and institutional clients to access various decentralized finance (DeFi) and Web3 activities. For institutions, custodians and custodial wallets play a vital role in storing private keys and facilitating transaction approvals, making MetaMask’s new offering a potential boon for adoption. Have we finally found a gold standard for DeFi integration? Only time will tell. Don’t miss it!With inflation making front-page news again, Mark Yusko reminded us that price increases aren’t the real problem. “This isn’t inflation. This is currency devaluation,” Yusko said in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at Bitcoin 2022. The founder of Morgan Creek Capital went on to explain the role of the Federal Reserve in undermining your purchasing power. I also got ask him about his Bitcoin price outlook and whether a 60/40 portfolio strategy is still feasible. You can watch the full interview below.[embedded content]Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

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Bitcoin 2022 Miami: Conference recap and major themes

Bitcoin (BTC) has come a long way since an obscure and esoteric white paper written by Satoshi Nakamoto was first published 13 years ago. The Bitcoin 2022 conference, hosted by Bitcoin Magazine and sponsored by Cash App, was perhaps the largest single event for the BTC community as 30,000 attendees and exhibitors descended on Miami Beach, according to the Miami Herald. Cointelegraph sent a contingency of journalists to experience the bullishness of Bitcoin 2022, a sentiment that was physically represented by a laser-eyed bull statue reminiscent of the Charging Bull on Wall Street in New York City. Along the way, they got to interview billionaires, hedge fund managers, business leaders and analysts about all things Bitcoin. Here were some of the notable themes from the event. The Miami Bull stood outside the Miami Beach Convention Center during the conference.InflationBitcoin’s role as an inflation hedge is being put to the test as consumer prices continue to rise at the fastest clip in over four decades. But according to Morgan Creek Capital founder Mark Yusko, the problem isn’t inflation per se — it’s currency devaluation. “This isn’t inflation. This is currency devaluation,” Yusko told Cointelegraph business editor Sam Bourgi in an exclusive interview, referring to the outcome of Federal Reserve policy. Although one BTC will always equal one BTC, its value in dollar terms may become less relevant over time as monetary policy continues to erode consumers’ and investors’ purchasing power. Noah Perlman, chief operating officer of Gemini, echoed Yusko’s sentiment and cited Gemini’s 2022 Global State of Crypto report. Perlman told Cointelegraph that citizens in countries with heavily devalued currencies “need to have crypto,” while in the developed world, it’s often just “nice to have.”[embedded content]Institutional adoptionAfter spending years talking about it, the digital asset industry has seen a tidal wave of institutional adoption over the past 12 months. This is not only reflected in the large capital inflows into institutional crypto funds and the rise of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds, but also in the green lighting of crypto investments from within legacy finance institutions. “Mr. Wonderful” Kevin O’Leary explained last November that his cautious approach to crypto investing was due to his own compliance department telling him to back off. But that appears to have changed. Now, legacy finance is looking for exposure to digital assets, and not just via crypto proxy stocks. In an interview with Cointelegraph at Bitcoin 2022, O’Leary gave the example of how a sovereign pension fund would approach crypto investing. In terms of limitations, “it’s completely regulatory,” he said, meaning that once such hurdles are cleared, it’s off to the races. [embedded content]Bitcoin mining and sustainabilityThe topics of many panels related to sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards when it came to Bitcoin mining. Cointelegraph spoke to Greg Beard, chief executive officer of Stronghold Digital Mining, a power plant that uses coal waste to generate electricity that powers Bitcoin mining supercomputers. He believes that Bitcoin’s “massive benefits for society dwarf any emissions concerns” and that powering the “largest decentralized computing network in the world” is not a risky endeavor. When asked about renewable energy sources powering Bitcoin miners, he said that although wind and solar power grids are inevitably becoming widespread, they are the least reliable sources of energy and that he prefers nuclear energy. He added that in the United States, Bitcoin mining could be considered a spinning reserve, essentially a backup battery, that saves the country’s power grid during shortages while keeping prices down.Related: Cash App users can now invest paychecks into BitcoinMacroeconomic analysis indicates BTC price will go upWhile many within the crypto community have tempered their expectations for Bitcoin’s price, the long-term view remains overwhelmingly bullish. Despite all that’s going on in the world, the Bitcoin network continues to produce block after block. And the newly mined Bitcoin is being gobbled up by whales, such as MicroStrategy, Luna Foundation Guard, PayPal and others.Bloomberg’s senior commodity strategist Mike McGlone explained to Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s perfectly inelastic supply means prices are going higher in the future — assuming demand continues to grow. While McGlone didn’t rule out short-term price declines, especially in light of the uncertainty surrounding risk assets, he explained that Bitcoin’s volatility is declining relative to stocks and commodities. Lower correlations with traditional risk-on assets, declining volatility over time and rapidly advancing technology are leading to wider mainstream adoption of crypto as an asset class, McGlone said.[embedded content]Related: Bolt to enable Bitcoin and NFT access via Wyre acquisitionOther insights 2022 is the second year that the Bitcoin conference has taken place in Miami, relocating from its original home in Los Angeles in 2021. This move has only further cemented Miami’s transformation into a cryptocurrency hub, adding to its more common designation as the financial hub for Latin America. As such, Cointelegraph made sure to talk to Sebastian Serrano, the chief operating officer of Ripio, one of the fastest growing crypto companies in Latin America to offer its own wallet, an exchange and an over-the-counter desk. According to Serrano, who admitted to once being a Bitcoin Maximalist, the Bitcoin community may be “too conservative” when it comes to innovation. However, he is a firm believer in Bitcoin’s potential to become a standard in the global financial and corporate economy. Noting differences between his consumers in different South American countries, he stated that Brazil is currently leading crypto ownership and adoption in LatAm.With additional reporting by Sam Bourgi.  

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