Digital Currency

U.S. lawmaker Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus who has put his name to a handful of pro-blockchain bills and letters, is under investigation by the Department of Justice, which is looking into whether he had a sexual relationship with a minor, the New York Times reported Tuesday. According to the report, which cited “three people briefed on the matter,” Gaetz is also being investigated over whether or not he violated federal sex trafficking laws. He allegedly may have paid for a 17-year-old to travel with him. The investigation is part…

An Australian cryptocurrency company is being sued in federal court for fraud in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the country. According to a report by ABC News on Sunday, French national Alexandre Raffin, 28, has brought a compensation claim against crypto company Modern Assets Australia for an alleged breach in duty of care. Raffin claims Modern Assets and its directors, Jonathan Allison and Carlo Sciubba, failed in their obligation to him as an intermediary in facilitating an exchange of cash for a South Korean cryptocurrency…

A young defensive back with the Los Angeles Rams is the latest pro athlete launching a non-fungible token (NFT), hoping to use the sale to raise money, and awareness, to combat the wave of anti-Asian hate crimes this year. Taylor Rapp, the free safety entering his third season in the National Football League, completely lacks the star power of a Rob Gronkowski or a Patrick Mahomes, marquee players who leveraged their splashy brands into multimillion-dollar NFT sales earlier this month. But the backfield starter, who said he’s been hustling with his co-creators for…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $58,800 as of 20:17 UTC (4:17 p.m. ET). Climbing 2.1% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $57,069-$59,380 (CoinDesk 20) Bitcoin has climbed on four of the past five days, and the price is now pushing back toward $60,000 for the first time in a couple weeks. “It wasn’t with the fanfare and fireworks, but instead just a standard grind higher, helped in part by the continued positive adoption news flow,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading with the digital-asset firm Equos, wrote Tuesday in…

Tesla just contributed to Bitcoin open source software. The car maker disclosed a bug in the open-source Bitcoin payment processor and wallet BTCPay Server, and it also helped the project’s team patch the flaw. The electric vehicle and renewables company informed BTCPay’s team of the bug after reviewing the project’s GitHub last week. It affects users who boot BTCPay from “Docker Deployment, have a configured email server and enabled registration for users in Server Settings > Policies,” according to a post on BTCPay’s GitHub that included a software patch. “The security team…

Flows into digital asset investment products declined by roughly $79 million to $21 million during the seven-day period through March 26, the lowest since October, according to a new report by CoinShares, a digital asset investment firm. Slowing investor appetite for cryptocurrency funds reflects sideways price action in bitcoin (BTC). The cryptocurrency has traded between $50,000 and $60,000 over the past week. “Investor appetite for digital assets has waned in recent weeks as volatility remains high and the price trades sideways,” CoinShares wrote in the report. “We have recently witnessed a significant reduction…

Cryptocurrency company Ripple has acquired a large stake in an Asia-based cross-border payments specialist in order to meet the growing customer demand. Ripple said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire a 40% stake in Tranglo for the purpose of expanding its RippleNet On-Demand Liquidity service, according to a press release. Tranglo is a cross-border money and prepaid credit transaction hub providing businesses and individuals the ability to transfer payments globally, according to its website. Southeast Asia’s payments landscape is “highly fragmented,” Ripple said in the release. Each country possesses its…

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is pursuing yet another case of a blockchain company allegedly selling unregistered securities. According to court documents filed Monday, peer-to-peer content distribution network LBRY is being accused of selling “millions of dollars worth of unregistered securities to investors” beginning in 2016. The securities regulator is seeking a permanent injunction against LBRY from selling further tokens in addition to a disgorgement of “ill-gotten gains” plus prejudgement interest. The SEC says the securities were sold in the form of LBRY Credits (LBC), which were communicated to investors as…

Cryptocurrency was invented by a guy who liked message boards. Then a young developer who thought decentralization could go even further kicked off a world computer with a white paper and some emails. The big wins in crypto are going to come from the punks, the hippies, the malcontents and the contrarians. What I’m saying is: In this very bullish season, don’t be enraptured by the suits. This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here. We see the…