Canadian Regulated Bitcoin Trust Achieves Mutual Fund Trust Status

A Canadian regulated bitcoin trust has achieved the mutual fund trust status, allowing eligible investors to invest in the trust through government-sponsored tax-efficient investment plans. The investment is approved by the Ontario Securities Commission and the British Columbia Securities Commission. 

Also read: 160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals

Mutual Fund Trust Status

First Block Capital Inc. announced on Monday, September 10, that its flagship product, the FBC Bitcoin Trust, “has now achieved mutual fund trust status.”

As such, the trust has become the “first and only” investment product approved by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) and the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) to offer “unit holders the exclusive opportunity to hold units of a bitcoin investment in their Tax Free Savings Accounts (TFSA) and Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSP).”

Noting that the investment is available only to accredited investors, the firm explained:

The trust units are [now] considered a qualified investment for a mutual fund trust under the Tax Act, having exceeded 150 unit holders within one year of launching.

The firm describes itself as “Canada’s first fully registered, dedicated cryptocurrency and blockchain investment company” that holds exempt market dealer (EMD), portfolio manager (PM) and investment fund manager (IFM) licenses. Its co-founder and chief investment officer, Marc van der Chijs, detailed:

Our goal is to make investments in the digital currency asset class more accessible and we are one step closer to achieving this goal by allowing unit holders to place units in government sponsored tax efficient vehicles, and by providing daily liquidity.

Two More Funds Coming Soon

In addition to the bitcoin trust, the firm plans to launch two investment products. The company’s funds are kept in Xapo’s cold-storage vault.

The first of the two is the Active Blockchain Opportunities ETF which is “an actively managed ETF dedicated to uncovering the best companies exposed to this global secular theme,” the firm describes.

The other product is the Cryptocurrency Index Fund that tracks the performance of tokens selected by the firm’s management team. The company explains, “The evaluation of selecting a token into our index fund is mainly determined by the development of its technology, market capitalization, and market liquidity. The goal is to provide investors with a transparent benchmark in this new asset class.”

What do you think of this bitcoin trust? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and First Block Capital Inc.

---

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Canadian Regulated Bitcoin Trust Achieves Mutual Fund Trust Status appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The post Canadian Regulated Bitcoin Trust Achieves Mutual Fund Trust Status appeared first on Crypto Currency Online.

source https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/canadian-regulated-bitcoin-trust-achieves-mutual-fund-trust-status/

Monitoring containerized microservices with a centralized logging architecture.

Mt. Gox Victims Must Take Claims to Tokyo, Not US, Judge Rules

ETH: Time to Buy?

US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Issues Its First Crypto Disciplinary Action

The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has taken its first disciplinary action involving cryptocurrencies. The authority charges a broker with fraudulent and unlawful distribution of unregistered crypto securities. The owner allegedly “attempted to lure public investment in his worthless public company” by issuing “the first minable coin backed by marketable securities.”

Also read: 160 Crypto Exchanges Seek to Enter Japanese Market, Regulator Reveals

FINRA’s First Crypto Disciplinary Action

The U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has issued its first crypto-related disciplinary action. The organization announced on Tuesday, September 11, “that it filed a complaint against Timothy Tilton Ayre of Agawam, Massachusetts, charging him with securities fraud and the unlawful distribution of an unregistered cryptocurrency security called Hempcoin,” adding:

This case represents FINRA’s first disciplinary action involving cryptocurrencies.

FINRA is a not-for-profit organization authorized by Congress to protect investors in the US by ensuring that the broker-dealer industry operates fairly and honestly. Although the organization is not part of the government, it is overseen by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In addition, FINRA “has the authority to fine, suspend or bar brokers and firms from the industry,” its website describes.

According to Tuesday’s notice, “The issuance of a disciplinary complaint represents the initiation of a formal proceeding by FINRA in which findings as to the allegations in the complaint have not been made, and does not represent a decision as to any of the allegations contained in the complaint.” All parties named in the complaint can file a response and request a hearing before a FINRA disciplinary panel, the notice details, noting:

Possible remedies include a fine, censure, suspension or bar from the securities industry, disgorgement of gains associated with the violations and payment of restitution.

The Hempcoin Case

Ayre is listed as the president of Rocky Mountain Ayre Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the OTC Grey market under the RMTN trading symbol.

In its complaint, FINRA alleges that, from January 2013 through October 2016, Ayre made “fraudulent, positive statements about RMTN’s business finances,” elaborating:

Ayre attempted to lure public investment in his worthless public company, Rocky Mountain Ayre Inc. (RMTN), by issuing and selling Hempcoin – which he publicized as ‘the first minable coin backed by marketable securities’.

According to FINRA, Ayre bought the rights to Hempcoin in June 2015. He then repackaged the token as a security backed by RMTN common stock and marketed it as “the world’s first currency to represent equity ownership” in a publicly traded company.

Investors, promised that “each coin was equivalent to 0.10 shares of RMTN common stock,” proceeded to mine more than 81 million Hempcoin securities through late 2017, FINRA described, noting that the coins were traded on two crypto exchanges.

FINRA believes that “Ayre defrauded investors in RMTN by making materially false statements and omissions regarding the nature of RMTN’s business, failing to disclose his creation and unlawful distribution of Hempcoin, and making multiple false and misleading statements in RMTN’s financial statements,” adding:

FINRA charges Ayre with the unlawful distribution of an unregistered security because he never registered Hempcoin and no exemption to registration applied.

What do you think of FINRA’s first crypto disciplinary action? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

Images courtesy of Shutterstock and Rocky Mountain Ayre Inc.

---

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Issues Its First Crypto Disciplinary Action appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The post US Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Issues Its First Crypto Disciplinary Action appeared first on Crypto Currency Online.

source https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/us-financial-industry-regulatory-authority-issues-its-first-crypto-disciplinary-action/

Government-Funded Drug Trafficking Makes USD the World’s Dirtiest Currency

Pablo Escobar. Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán. Rick Ross. Household names, each and every one of them; drug lords collectively responsible for punting billions of dollars’ worth of narcotics. Yet their crimes pale in comparison to those their prosecutors have been perpetrating for years. After decades of fueling proxy wars and trafficking, the US government has powder on its hands – a combination of gunshot residue, cocaine, and heroin. Those same agencies that would decree what the public can and can’t do with their cryptocurrency have broken every rule in the book.

Also read: Terrorists Prefer Cash to Crypto, According to Congressional Testimony

Bitcoin, Drug Barons, and High Hypocrisy

In a 6×8 feet concrete cell in a Colorado penitentiary, prisoner 18870-111 meditates silently. He will perform this daily ritual another 18,250 times in his lifetime, which shall be expended within the confines of his cramped enclosure. The 34-year-old is serving life without parole, officially for operating a sprawling drugs marketplace. Unofficially, his life term isn’t for drug trafficking however – it’s for doing so without cutting the US government a slice of the action. His name is Ross Ulbricht and his crimes are a drop in the bucket to those perpetrated by the three-letter agencies whose fingerprints are all over his prosecution.

Even if one takes the view that drug dealing and money laundering are unlawful – and there are many, particularly in the Bitcoin community, who would demur – the hypocrisy of law enforcement is breathtaking. Many of the officials who would lock up dealers for life think nothing of committing the very same crimes. Sometimes these are rogue agents operating alone, such as Carl Force and Shaun Bridges, who helped bring down Ross Ulbricht while committing even more egregious crimes and tainting the evidence trail. But the most serious cases of government-orchestrated malfeasance see orders taken from the very heart of the so-called deep state.

A Short History of US Government Lawlessness

As the following examples show, there is a very strong case for asserting that the US government, typically operating off the books through shadowy proxies, is the world’s largest cartel. What follows is a handful of the crimes we know to have been committed with the blessing of US agencies. Consider this the tip of the iceberg.

Nicaragua, CIA cocaine trafficking: Widespread sources have alleged the CIA to have been complicit in cocaine smuggling in the 1980s. Funds from the narcotics operation were reputedly used to fund the Contra war in Nicaragua. It was later alleged that this operation was pivotal in creating the crack cocaine epidemic that wreaked havoc on major US cities in the 80s.

Mexico, CIA cocaine & marijuana: In 2013, it was alleged that CIA operatives oversaw the kidnap and murder of a DEA agent because he threatened their Mexican drug operations. A CIA spokesman denied the allegations. Naturally. The CIA was also implicated in similar misdeeds in Honduras and Panama, tied to its funding of the Contras in Nicaragua.

Venezuela, CIA cocaine importation: There’s a lot of drugs in South America and the CIA seems to have gotten its hands on a lot of them. After seizing a ton of cocaine in Venezuela, the confiscated narcotics somehow made their way onto the streets of the US. While the DEA objected to the operation, which was designed to flush out a Colombian drug cartel, the CIA proceeded anyway, because the CIA does what it wants.

Switzerland, CIA LSD importation: We have the CIA to thank for LSD. It was they who went over to Basel, Switzerland in the 1950s, where it had first been synthesized, and brought the whole supply over to the States. They then incorporated it into their secret mind control program called MK Ultra in conjunction with the U.S. Army Biological Warfare Laboratories, complete with illegal testing on humans.

Afghanistan, heroin cultivation: Reports of US government complicity in the heroin trade go back decades, with the CIA’s name predictably cropping up. Whether you believe the US was directly involved in allowing Afghanistan’s poppy fields to flourish, or simply allowed them to prosper as part of a laissez-faire policy, the end result is the same: by 2006, during peak US occupation, heroin production reached a historic high.

The US Government Is the World’s Biggest Cartel

These are just a few of the cases in which US government involvement in drugs crimes has been established. While these examples were primarily perpetrated by the CIA, every branch of the US government has been complicit in similar crimes. From the FBI to state police, every branch, state, and county has its share of bad apples, like the Baltimore cops who became robbers.

It is incumbent upon us to reflect upon these cases when we consider the proactive role the US government takes in dictating the freedoms the rest of us are granted. When it locks Ross Ulbricht up for life for committing what many believe to be a victimless crime. When they lean on crypto companies such as Shapeshift to enact full KYC. When they conflate cryptocurrency with terrorism, despite all the evidence to the contrary. If the US dollar is the world’s most tainted currency, bitcoin might just be its cleanest.

Do you think the US government is still complicit in drug trafficking? Let us know in the comments section below.

---

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

---

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.

The post Government-Funded Drug Trafficking Makes USD the World’s Dirtiest Currency appeared first on Bitcoin News.

The post Government-Funded Drug Trafficking Makes USD the World’s Dirtiest Currency appeared first on Crypto Currency Online.

source https://cryptocurrencyonline.co/government-funded-drug-trafficking-makes-usd-the-worlds-dirtiest-currency/

Follow the Coin: Who Stands to Gain from Blockchains Today