The Bolivarian National Guard of Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, seized 315 Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines manufactured by Bitmain. The owners of the mining rigs were told that they did not possess the necessary permits to own and operate the machines. They also were not authorized to be transporting the machines during the COVID-19 quarantine. According to current legislation, Venezuelan citizens who are interested in conducting crypto-related mining activities must obtain the appropriate permits from a government office called the National Superintendence of Cryptoactives. Owners who fail to obtain these permits risk being fined, and having their equipment confiscated.

Venezuela’s allegedly corrupt leader, Nicolás Maduro, recently lost a court battle involving approximately $1 billion of gold. “The UK High Court has ruled against Venezuela's government in a legal battle over access to $1bn (£820m) of gold stored in the Bank of England,” BBC said in a July 2 article. As a self-sovereign digital asset, Bitcoin lies outside of centralized control. If Maduro stored that value in Bitcoin, he may still have access to those funds. Funds in flux Several months ago U.S. authorities came forward with allegations against Venezuela’s Maduro and 14 of the country’s leaders in March, claiming …

Bitcoin (BTC) will hit $500,000 because the United States will start a giant hash war with Iran and Venezuela — and it’s already started. In the latest episode of his "Keiser Report" TV show, Max Keiser predicted that the Iranian and Venezuelan regimes would force the Trump administration to embrace BTC. Keiser: God is looking at us through the Bitcoin protocol Thanks to Tehran potentially controlling 3% of the Bitcoin hash rate already and Venezuela — briefly — accepting BTC payments, the U.S. joining the fight for Bitcoin supremacy is only a matter of time. “Iran has already got 3% …

Venezuela’s Administrative Service for Identification, Migration, and Foreigners, known as SAIME, recently began to accept Bitcoin (BTC) for passport applications from Venezuelan citizens living abroad. As of today, however, officials have disabled the new payment method without explanation. People have reported through social media that SAIME’s website now states this payment type is “temporarily out of service.” Still no official response from SAIME Cointelegraph Spanish sent an inquiry to local authorities through Twitter asking why, as of press time, the payment type remains offline. SAIME officials never officially announced the addition of Bitcoin payments for Venezuelans living abroad, nor have …

Venezuela's Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Foreigners, known as SAIME, plans to accept bitcoin (BTC) as a new payment method for citizens seeking a Venezuelan passport. The information was originally leaked via a Reddit post on June 23. News of the update soon reached Twitter, with some Venezuelan users abroad confirming the information. Cointelegraph Spanish managed to verify this news as well. Source: Cointelegraph Spanish "I have just verified it personally and it is totally true. #Venezuela, the immigration service, is accepting bitcoin for payments. Renew passport or request an extension," wrote Twitter user, BTCLovera. Similar payments can already …

Bitisis, an Iran-based cryptocurrency exchange platform targeting Chinese investors with investment opportunities, has reportedly pulled an exit scam. Chinese police are currently investigating the exchange’s disappearance, with the platform appearing to have transferred users’ assets to three wallet addresses after abruptly suspending operations. However, the addresses in question are held by major cryptocurrency exchanges and have been frozen. The operators of Bitisis are reportedly linked to a number of other similar exchanges. Arbitrage Fraud? According to 8btc, Bitisis lured investors with promises of abundant arbitrage opportunities affiliate referral commissions and embarked on an aggressive marketing campaign targeting the users of …

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Adam Traidman, the co-founder and chief executive of BRD, formerly Breadwallet, shared the story of his journey into crypto. BRD was founded in 2015, quickly rising to prominence as a popular wallet in the United States and emerging economies like Venezuela. After initially being skeptical regarding Bitcoin’s prospects for mainstream adoption, Tradiman was won over after overhearing a conversation between executives at Andreessen Horowitz concerning BTC. I told him he was out of his mind “I'm originally a computer chip designer, and it was in about 2013 when I was CEO of a company that …

The Venezuelan government announced on June 11 that almost 15% of all fuel payments at petrol stations across the country were made using the Petro (PTR). This rise comes during the first week of the new state-backed plan to promote widespread use of the token. According to a report from Ultimas Noticias, 40% of the PTR transactions passed through the foreign stations. Balancing Venezuela’s crypto environment? The blog Geopolítica Coyuntural says that Petro adoption will strengthen the balance and the homologation of value between the primary and secondary market, "allowing to build an economical and stable structure for the crypto …

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin (BTC) trading activity in the United States surged to a new all-time high during the week of June 7, according to data published by UsefulTulips. Over the past seven days, nearly $29 million worth of Bitcoin has changed hands for U.S. dollars on leading P2P marketplaces Localbitcoins and Paxful. The past week saw only North America and Middle Eastern/North African trade increase, with all other regions posting slight declines in seven-day volume. Over $24 million in Bitcoin changed hands on Paxful in the United States alongside $4.6 million traded on Localbitcoins. With roughly $1 million trading on Canada’s …

Privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Dash has announced its first quarter of 2020 financial report to investors, revealing solid growth in adoption and commercial payments. According to the report, commercial payments using Dash grew 104% for Q1, helped by a number of partnerships in the Latin American region. Solid year-over-year growth During Q1 2020 the number of active Dash wallets installed on mobile devices reached 101,747, representing a 214% increase year-over-year and a 21% increase on the previous quarter. In the same period, the median number of daily commercial payments using Dash grew to 17,127, a growth of 104% year-over-year. This growth has …

Despite local cryptocurrency uncertainty, Russia is strengthening its leadership on major peer-to-peer exchange LocalBitcoins in the share of Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes. Russia has traded the most Bitcoin on LocalBitcoins exchange for two consecutive months, April and May 2020, according to an analysis by crypto media startup CryptoDiffer. Russia trades nearly twice as much BTC on LocalBitcoins as Venezuela and the U.S. According to the data, Russia was responsible for 19% of total BTC trading volumes on LocalBitcoins this May, leaving Venezuela and the United States trailing. LocalBitcoins’ BTC trading in Venezuela and the U.S. reportedly accounted for 11% and …

The United States government has put Joselit Ramirez Camacho, the Venezuelan government’s superintendent of the Petro cryptocurrency, on its Most Wanted List. According to a June 1 statement, the Homeland Security Investigations branch of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency issued a bounty for up to $5 million for any information that would lead to the capture of Petro’s supervisor. This was done following an investigation by the HSI’s New York office. The authorities allege that Ramirez Camacho has “deep political, social and economic ties” to suspected narcotic kingpins, one of whom is Tareck El Aissami, former Vice President …