Space X and Tesla CEO, Elon Musk is facing a $258 billion lawsuit for running a dogecoin pyramid scheme. According to Bloomberg, Keith Johnson, an American citizen is suing the world’s richest man for allegedly pumping Dogecoin. The lawsuit alleges that Musk was part of a racketeering scheme to back the cryptocurrency.
Keith seeks $86 billion in damages and an additional $172 billion for the losses incurred for trading dogecoin from 2019. Through the lawsuit, he says he also represents various other investors who have lost their money in dogecoin and he implores Elon Musk to halt promoting Dogecoin.
“Defendants falsely and deceptively claim that Dogecoin is a legitimate investment when it has no value at all,” Keith Johnson, who filed the lawsuit, said in the complaint.
The Lawsuit also cites,
“Dogecoin is not a currency, stock, or security. It’s not backed by gold, other precious metal, or anything at all. You can’t eat it, grow it, or wear it. It doesn’t pay interest or dividends. It has no unique utility compared to other cryptocurrencies. It’s not secured by a government or private entity.”
Elon Musk hasn’t yet responded to the lawsuit.
The Tesla CEO has begun accepting DOGE for Tesla merch and announced that SpaceX might soon follow the same.
The billionaire has made a point of highlighting his bitcoin investments in recent years. He declared in March that he won’t sell his bitcoin, Ethereum, and Dogecoin holdings despite rising inflation and economic instability that have led many investors to liquidate risky assets.
SINGAPORE, [17] June 2022 – Amber Group, a leading global digital asset platform, today announced its acquisition of Celera Markets Limited, a fully licensed financial group by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong. The acquisition represents a significant milestone for Amber Group, as it continues to strengthen its product portfolio to bridge the gap between traditional and digital finance globally.
As a licensed corporation under the Hong Kong SFC, Celera Markets is a discretionary asset management firm that engages in traditional securities and derivatives brokerage services, with an emphasis on algorithmic execution spanning global venues and asset management mandates.
The acquisition leverages the synergies between Celera Markets and Amber Group, as the latter sets its sights on broadening its advisory and deals offering for financial instruments while adhering to the regulatory parameters set by the SFC. Through the acquisition, Amber Group has secured five types of SFC licenses – Type 1, 2, 4, 5 and 9 – which allows the company to carry out a broad range of services including advising on and dealing in securities and futures contracts as well as providing asset management services.
This is a landmark moment for Amber Group amid an increasingly complex regulatory landscape in the finance industry. The acquisition strengthens Amber Group’s foothold in Hong Kong, a leading global financial center and one of the world’s most active and liquid securities markets, effectively widening the reach of the company’s products and services to legacy financial market participants.
“Hong Kong holds tremendous strategic value as a key global finance hub, and we are proud to be integrating the best from traditional and digital finance as we expand our presence in the market. As an asset management player with a decade-long track record, Celera Markets offers valuable market expertise and TradFi experience which is critical to our global mission to facilitate the convergence of TradFi and digital asset finance. This acquisition also marks a significant milestone in Amber Group’s commitment to regulatory compliance as we strive to build institutional investors’ trust and confidence in crypto assets. As we continue to hold ourselves to the highest compliance standards and win the trust of an SFC-approved institution, we look forward to welcoming a new era of finance in Hong Kong,“ said Michael Wu, Chief Executive Officer of Amber Group.
Amber Group is a leading digital asset platform operating globally with offices in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The firm provides a full range of digital asset services spanning investing, financing, and trading. Amber Group is backed by prominent investors including Sequoia, Temasek, Paradigm, Tiger Global, Dragonfly, Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, and Blockchain.com.
Leading multi-asset brokerage company eToro has announced that its trading platform will now enlist new clients from South Africa.
“It’s been a long time coming, but we are SO excited to announce that we are now accepting new users from South Africa,” the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Howzit South Africans 👋
Exciting update – We are now accepting new users from South Africa 🎉
eToro is based in Israel and rose to prominence by providing copy trading services before expanding into a full brokerage. By January 2022, the company had reached a valuation of $8.8 billion.
The brokerage is registered and regulated in a number of other countries including Seychelles, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.
Although the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FCA), South Africa’s financial market regulator, has not issued the brokerage with a license, it is registering clients from the African country through eToro (UK) Ltd, a UK-based firm authorized by the FCA.
eToro joined the African trading market as part of its efforts to become a publicly-traded company on a US stock exchange. It has already agreed to a reverse merger with an American blank-check company, but the deal has yet to be completed, despite a June 30 deadline.
The company is also heavily ramping up its cryptocurrency offerings in a mission to empower people to grow their knowledge and wealth as part of a global community of investors. eToro also added 3 new cryptos to its portfolio of 73 crypto projects including 49 currencies.
eToro is also registered as a digital asset service provider (DASP) in France allowing it to provide non-leveraged crypto products in the country.
With an estimated total of about 190,000 daily traders, South Africa forms a substantial part of the merging retail market in Africa coming second to only Nigeria by these numbers.
However, a report by Finance Magnates Intelligence from last year revealed that South Africa topped the continent in average transaction size per trader.
South Africa is on the verge of more developments as Poland-headquartered XTB is also targeting to launch South African forex trading operations in the second half of 2022 to enter the lucrative market.
Investors have recently witnessed attempts by Russian politicians and officials to fully embrace and institutionalize cryptocurrency. However, last week, a bill to prohibit cryptocurrencies as a payment method was introduced by Russia‘s lower parliament chamber, raising questions about the position of the nation on cryptocurrencies.
The country has also been working to make cryptocurrency a taxable financial asset and a tool for international trade.
The bill that would impose a complete ban on payment using crypto has passed the first reading in Russia’s parliament which means that the dream of legalizing crypto as a payment method in Russia is slowly fading away.
Local Russian news sources broke the news. The bill, which was sponsored by the Financial Markets Committee head, passed the first reading with a reservation.
The bill received criticism for its stringent rules governing digital rights and tokenized assets. One of the main potential problems that was pointed out is that it treats Digital Financial Assets (DFAs) which are known as tokens rather than cryptocurrencies, as a payment method while they are most commonly used as security tokens.
By mandating DFA exchange managers to refuse any transactions involving the use of cryptocurrency as a method of payment, the new measure formalizes the ban.
The new measure also hits on the idea of an electronic platform. It alludes to the many platforms that deal with and issue digital assets. Additionally, the platforms would have to provide the national bank with their data. Legislation on digital financial activities already exists and went into effect in 2021. If the bill successfully moves forward, Russian investors can forget about using crypto as a payment method.
The President of the Central African Republic (CAR), Faustin-Archange Touadéraon, stated recently that he is unfazed by the decline in the cryptocurrency market.
The president, who has long been a supporter of cryptocurrencies, stressed his continued support for crypto in a tweet despite the severe economic downturn in response to the ongoing crypto winter, which has seen the overall market valuation fall below $1 trillion.
Understanding #Bitcoin is crucial to acknowledge its disruptive power to bring long term prosperity. Mathematics don't account for human emotions.Future generations will look behind at these very moments to 🥳 our strength & unity in choosing the right path during hard times #BTC
— Faustin-Archange Touadéra (@FA_Touadera) June 14, 2022
The Central Africa Republic announced the adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender in April this year and the President referred to this move as a “decisive step towards opening up new opportunities.” The move made it the first African country and the second in the world, after El Salvador, to legalize the use of Bitcoin.
While the decision has drawn much criticism and concerns about whether Bitcoin will solve the country’s financial problems, the country still strongly takes a positive stand on adopting Bitcoin. Additionally, the adoption of Bitcoin in CAR has been slow, nonetheless, the president continues to push with missionary zeal.
Although it has been adopted, the war-torn nation still lacks the technological foundation needed to sustain the adoption of bitcoin. As a result, it continues to hang onto its acceptance of cryptocurrencies as a potential stimulus for rapid development.
Announced the partnership with Chelsea Football Club as Official Sleeve Partner, with the logo of WhaleFin to be emblazoned across the kit of both the men’s and women’s teams from the 2022/23 season.
Joined the Travel Rule Universal Solution Technology (TRUST) coalition to comply with the Travel Rule while protecting the security and privacy of customers.
Took part in a beach clean-up at East Coast Park, Singapore, joined by our sustainability partners Zero Waste SG and Whale and Dolphin Conservation.
Product Development and Partnerships
Integrated Chainlink to help bring more secure and reliable asset transaction pricing services to customers.
CEO Michael Wu joined the Macquarie Australia Conference to share his insights on metaverse / Web3.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined a webinar hosted by CMU T&E to talk about how to build Web3 startups.
Managing Partner Annabelle Huang joined a panel discussion hosted by CoinDesk to discuss opportunities across different market structures.
Partner Delroy Fong joined a panel discussion at Singapore Institutional Digital Asset Summit on digital assets derivatives.
Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined a panel discussion at London AIM Summit to discuss how institutions are going beyond Bitcoin and adopting the broader digital asset class.
Europe Managing Director Sophia Shluger joined a YouTube live session with BTS Labs to dive deeper into Ethereum 2.0, DeFi Movement, Cross-chain Bridges and DAO.
Europe Managing Director Oksana Grinchak joined a webinar hosted by Macro Hive to discuss the market chaos and what is next for crypto.
Europe Managing Director Francesco Adiliberti joined a panel discussion hosted by Dukascopy Bank to share his outlook on the IT ecosystem in Switzerland.
Sponsored Blockchain Fest 2022 in Cyprus and Senior BD Director for Continental Europe Stefan Becker was interviewed at a Fireside chat session.
Attended the NexTech Expo Week in Tokyo and showcased WhaleFin, Blue Whale Club and Openverse to the Expo visitors.
London-based menswear brand, Ahluwalia has announced a collaboration with the digital fashion community, Brand New Vision (BNV) to launch an NFT collection called ‘Africa is Limitless’.
The announcement was made yesterday at London Fashion Week and highlighted how the “Africa is Limitless” collection looks to celebrate the vastness of African nations and experience the breadth and beauty of Black humanity.
The Ahluwalia brand was first launched in 2018 by Priya Ahluwalia to celebrate diversity with themes of multiculturalism aiming to uplift marginalized and underrepresented communities. Many of the collections are inspired by Priya’s dual Indian-Nigerian heritage.
The collection is inspired by the diversity of the heritage within African countries and consists of a total of 40 pieces with tracksuits featuring 25 combinations of textures and mixes.
“This collection gives me, the team and our customers the opportunity to learn about the vastness of African nations and experience the breadth and beauty of Black humanity,” Brand Founder Priya Ahluwalia explained.
Ahluwalia has partnered with BNV which describes itself as a “fashion company” that exists to help its partners navigate the intersection between fashion and the metaverse through 3D product creation, tokenization and community building.
In a press release, BNV’s CEO Richard Hobbs shared,
“This collaboration represents another exciting example of the potential of web3 and fashion, not only in bringing some of the most incredible and talented designers to an even bigger audience but in telling an even deeper story and benefiting organizations those stories represent.”
According to Hobbs, the future of digital fashion through Web3 is all about using this innovation as more than a channel to sell products.
He added,
“…it is a vehicle for showcasing the world’s finest creative talent and rewarding the groups they feel passionate about, all while giving the BNV community access to something they care deeply about.”
According to Priya, Web3 is not a diverse place and far more needs to be done to ensure the underpinnings of equality are seen in the everyday activity as the community grows.
“I’m so proud to launch a collection rooted in Africa — the collection reflects each nation and is focused on the photographers, artists, filmmakers, folktales, national animals and musicians in order to build a multifaceted creative map of the entire continent,” the London-based designer adds.
40% of the revenue from the sales will go to the Black Cultural Archives from which Ahluwalia drew inspiration for the collection. Black Cultural Archives is a British heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.
The NFTs will go on sale on June 27 on BNV at 0.25 ETH but those who wish to pay more will have the extra amount go directly to the Black Cultural Archives.
Ikechukwu Sunday Okonkwo better known as Cross went from being a housemate on the Big Brother Naija 2021 show to a full-on metaverse fanatic in a journey that is chronicled as follows.
Long before he even considered auditioning for one of the continent’s biggest reality shows, Cross says he stumbled into the world of cryptocurrency from a WhatsApp group chat he shared with friends from secondary school.
“It was through friends that I pretty much got into it,” the 30-year-old said in a recent interview with the Nigerian news site, Technext adding,
“I told them ‘carry me along with this thing that you’re doing.’ That was how I knew that there was this space, this world of crypto. This was between 2015 and 2016.”
Cross shares how he knew it was important to understand the market so he started researching, monitoring the trends, and following and befriending people in the space to see how it all works.
Even though he was aware of the volatile nature of the crypto market, when confronted with it, he made the rookie mistake of withdrawing his assets when the market had fallen.
Cross pointed out how a need for money to pay bills made him sell his crypto at very cheap prices and by the time the market rose again, he was still on the losing end. He says withdrawing his money was a big mistake.
“Instead of me to wait for it to rise back up. I didn’t. I started withdrawing the money, a little here, a little there. But my friends made money from it because they left their money there. So, I said let me give it another try.”
Shortly after, BBNaija came calling and fame followed but Cross remained committed to the crypto world, picking up endorsement deals here and there, peddling NFTs on social media and spending hours in the metaverse.
“You can be here in Lagos and when you go into the metaverse you’ll meet people all over the world. It’s crazy man.”
– Ikechukwu “Cross” Sunday Okonkwo
Cross has also dipped his toes into the NFT pool having bought his first NFT when a friend sent him a number of options for him to see what was available on the market.
“I didn’t think it was going to do well or anything like that. I just bought it because I like it,” he said. Cross added that this NFT has now more than tripled in value.
Cross has grown his expertise in the NFT world but attributes his success to a simple trick of buying what he likes.
“That’s it,” he said. “I just buy what I like. If I see it and I like it, then I’ll buy it.”
With his own collection of NFTs reportedly in the works, Cross believes that ownership is a key driving factor for most entertainers trading and launching NFTs.
“On social media platforms like Instagram and Twitter, having many followers is good,” Cross said. “But at the end of the day, you don’t own them. Instagram owns them. It’s not yours. You might get a cut from advertising here and there, but Instagram owns them.
“But with NFTs you own them. And you own them forever.”
Ikechukwu Sunday Okonkwo a.k.a “Cross”
Even when users choose to resell their NFTs, the original creators still get a reselling fee, between one to ten per cent, for all the times the NFTs are sold.
Cross also commented on the thefts that have plagued the NFT space in recent times emphasizing caution and calling for vigilance saying he is paying attention to the news.
Since his friend reportedly lost millions in a password recovery type scheme, Cross has become paranoid about random links saying,
“In front of my eyes, he was losing money until his wallet was almost empty. I don’t just click on links. When people send me links, I call them to ask what that link leads to and is for. One has to be careful.”
The French Olympic Committee is planning to deploy a blockchain ticketing system for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The committee intends to give fans a non-transferable, personalized blockchain ticketing system.
In addition, the committee also suggested improved safety procedures to avoid the catastrophe that occurred during the Champions League Final last month.
Last week, a strong response against the planning of the Liverpool and Real Madrid matches resulted from the submission of the 30-page study with recommendations to the Prime Minister’s office.
The report was presented by Michel Cadot, the interministerial delegate for the French Olympics, according to a news source named the Ticketing Business News. The necessary changes for the 2024 Olympic Games were included in the report.
According to the research, each significant sporting event held in France should have a personalized and secure ticketing system in place. The paper also emphasized how blockchain ticketing can give fans more security. Non-transferable tickets will be issued and distributed by the organization a few days before the Olympics commence.
The ticket can also be registered using a rotating QR code that will be deactivated immediately after the ticket holder has entered the venue. Ticket personalization might also enable ticket holders to get interactive messaging about transportation, security, and venue entry via digital channels.
“These provisions are already planned for the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the Olympics and Paralympics 2024 and practiced by major events such as the French International Tennis,” Cadot said.
In addition, Cadot pressed for the establishment of a national body to regulate significant international sporting events. According to Cadot, doing so would “bridge the gap between the global dimension and local management.”
Much as the Tokyo Olympics already used crypto with champions receiving cryptocurrency rewards through the Bitbns exchange, putting these adjustments in place would also result in a major heads-up for blockchain technology.
Last month, the South African radio presenter on Thobela FM, Sebasa Mogale was accused of involvement in a crypto scam that saw over 100 people fall victim. A regional police spokesperson also confirmed that he has indeed received complaints from individuals claiming to be victims of the presenter’s scam.
One report states that five fraud cases were opened against Mogale. Investigations are ongoing and according to the report, after the probe has been completed, Mogale will turn the cases over to a senior prosecutor who will decide the next step.
However, according to the radio presenter’s legal representative, Lesedi Mphahlele, Mogale, the accused did not receive any money from anybody.
Mphahlele also responded to the allegations against Mogale by stating that the allegations were false and were damaging Mogale’s reputation. Mphahlele added:
“I think it’s a matter of people not understanding how the business operates Bitcoin. Mogale did nothing but market. Everyone is challenged to produce proof of payments showing that money went into either his personal or business account.”
Mphahlele admitted that fraud cases had been filed against Mogale but there isn’t any evidence because he has never committed fraud.
Although Mogale acknowledges being a network marketer, he denies pressuring anyone to sign up for the cryptocurrency investment scheme. Mogale added that he never pretended to be an expert in cryptocurrencies or the proprietor of any cryptocurrency company and he vowed to sue those that reported him.
The radio host believes that everybody who has signed up for his Bitcoin Investment Scheme would have access to all of their monies, despite the fact that his victims have collectively claimed losses totaling more than $50,000.
