Borderless – Details, episodes & analysis

Nischal Shetty, the CEO of India’s top crypto exchange WazirX joins hosts Danny Nelson and Anna Baydakova on this week’s Borderless to talk crypto bans. Rumor has it India’s government is gearing up for a crypto crackdown; possibly a complete ban. Is that really the case? Nischal helps untangle fact from fiction in one of crypto’s most exciting emerging markets.

The conversation then turns to crypto-environmentalism, first through mining and then via NFTs. Miami’s dream of becoming a hub for “clean energy” crypto mining could run into some pretty “hot” opposition. Meanwhile, another NFT marketplace is bending the knee to environmentalists’ demands, but only slightly.

https://www.coindesk.com/miami-mayor-wants-city-to-become-bitcoin-mining-hub

https://www.coindesk.com/nifty-gateway-pledges-to-go-carbon-negative-amid-criticism-of-nfts

https://www.coindesk.com/cbdcs-will-reduce-demand-for-bitcoin-says-south-korea-central-bank-chief

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In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Kim Nilsson, a former user of the oldest (and long defunct) Mt. Gox crypto exchange. Nilsson has investigated the infamous crypto theft and has been watching the effort to repay the exchange’s creditors. 

When Mt. Gox stopped functioning and filed for bankruptcy, Nilsson didn’t just sit back and see what happened. He set up his own bitcoin node, coded software and tracked the stolen bitcoin to where it landed. He’s also been an active member of the Mt. Gox creditor community over the years. 

Nilsson explains why it takes so long to resolve all the seven-year-old situations, why most of the creditors are still holding on to their claims (instead of selling them) and what’s next for those who have been waiting for repayment since 2014. 

We also asked him to chat with us about the most interesting global crypto stories of last week. That was fun! 

For example, Canadian exchange Coinsquare was obliged by a federal court in Canada to disclose data on some of its 20,000 users to the national tax agency, the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The taxman is knocking on crypto exchanges’ doors, and that, Nilsson believes, is basically the end of privacy in crypto.

The rumor mill is working overtime in India: Will the nation ban all cryptocurrencies? Start blocking IP addresses of crypto exchanges? Maybe, maybe not. India is a big economy with a young and crypto-curious population, so the threat of crypto regulation has resounded.

Meanwhile in Turkey, the national currency, the lira, is tanking, and people are buying bitcoin to protect their savings. There are neither regulations nor a specific tax on crypto in the country, and the interest in bitcoin is surging in the time of fiscal uncertainty.   

Stories mentioned in this episode:

• WSJ: The Man Who Solved Bitcoin’s Most Notorious Heist
• CoinDesk: Mt. Gox
• CoinDesk: Mt. Gox Creditors to Vote on Draft Rehabilitation Plan
• CoinDesk: Crypto Exchange Coinsquare Ordered to Hand Thousands of Customers’ Records to Canadian Tax Agency
• CoinDesk: Crypto Is Not Regulated in Turkey, and It’s Thriving
• CoinDesk: India May Block IP Addresses of Crypto Exchanges: Report 

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.

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In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Tanzeel Akhtar and Nik De discuss what to expect from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration regarding crypto, how QuadrigaCX users are doing and trying to predict the future for Ripple. 

President Joe Biden has named Gary Gensler as his pick for chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Janet Yellen as the future head of the U.S. Treasury. Gensler, the former chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is known for his series of lectures at MIT about blockchain tech. Yellen said recently she believes crypto is funding illicit activities, sending the bitcoin price down. What’s next? Nik De provides a short guide to what to watch.

Ernst and Young (EY), the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX, is still trying to figure out how to value the firm’s cryptocurrency assets before disbursement to creditors. Timing is crucial here: The amount of money creditors will get depends on the day of evaluation chosen because the price of bitcoin changed a lot between February and April 2019, when QuadrigaCX’s court story was developing. 

Last but not least, Ripple has been grappling with a bunch of troubles since the SEC filed a lawsuit against the company in December. The commission believes Ripple has been selling unregistered securities, namely the XRP tokens. The court case is still in progress, but soon after the lawsuit was filed, a number of exchanges and brokers suspended XRP trading including Coinbase, Kraken, OKCoin, Bitstamp, eToro, Crypto.com, Genesis and others. Now, a new SEC head is expected. Good news for Ripple? Probably not too much.

Stories mentioned in this episode:

• Gary Gensler Named as Joe Biden’s SEC Chair Pick (TA)

https://www.coindesk.com/gary-gensler-confirmed-as-joe-bidens-sec-chair-pick 

• Janet Yellen Says Cryptocurrencies Are a ‘Concern’ in Terrorist Financing https://www.coindesk.com/janet-yellen-says-cryptocurrencies-are-a-concern-in-terrorist-financing

• Criminal Activity in Crypto Transactions Fell Sharply in 2020, Says Chainalysis

https://www.coindesk.com/criminal-activity-in-crypto-transactions-fell-sharply-in-2020-says-chainalysis

• Trustee of Collapsed Exchange Moves to Resolve Crypto vs. Fiat Creditor Claims Tussle https://www.coindesk.com/trustee-of-collapsed-exchange-to-ask-court-to-resolve-crypto-vs-fiat-creditor-claims-tussle

• Kraken to Halt XRP Trading for US Residents https://www.coindesk.com/kraken-to-halt-xrp-trading-for-u-s-residents

• Japan’s FSA Says XRP Not a Security: Report https://www.coindesk.com/japans-fsa-says-xrp-not-a-security-report 

• Asia’s Retail FOMO Could Be Behind XRP’s Rally Despite SEC’s Lawsuit https://www.coindesk.com/xrp-asia-retail-fomo-rally

• Ripple CEO Walks Back Threat to Leave US https://www.coindesk.com/ripple-leaving-usa 

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In this episode, Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Tanzeel Akhtar discuss why one of Justin Sun’s companies is linked to extremism, the insurrection of the Capitol on a blockchain, Iran taking the mining industry under control and also if Europe can regulate bitcoin.

Rioters storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, livestreamed the action in DLive; a video streaming platform owned by BitTorrent, which, in turn, is owned by the Tron founder Justin Sun. They also received donations through the blockchain-based service. Crypto, extremism, deplatforming and the history of Justin Suns' ventures all are wrapped up in this story, which is too big to ignore. 

The government of Iran wants to control crypto mining and has clamped down on miners again. In January, the country shut down 1,620 illegal cryptocurrency mining farms. The mining operations were disconnected from the national power grid and miners will face prosecution. Iran has been cash-strapped by the international sanctions for years, and bitcoin looks like another way to get the government the money it needs. But will it work? And will the rest of the world allow it?

In Europe, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is eager to go after “funny business” in the cryptocurrency markets. Lagarde believes the world needs to adopt comprehensive regulation to stop criminals, such as money launderers, from turning to bitcoin for help. She has called bitcoin a "highly speculative" asset. This is not the first time Lagarde has cautioned that cryptocurrencies should be taken seriously and called for global cooperation among worldwide regulators. Whether or not Lagarde is being taken seriously is yet to be seen. 

CoinDesk reporters Anna Baydakova, Danny Nelson and Tanzeel Akhtar mentioned these stories in today’s episode:

• CoinDesk: Tron-Owned Video Platform Dlive Criticized for Hosting Extremists, US Capitol Rioters 
• The Verge: Hype Man of The Century
• CoinDesk: BitGo Launches Wrapped Bitcoin, Ether on Tron Blockchain 
• Iranian Authorities Close 1,620 Illegal Cryptocurrency Mining Farms: Report 
• Motherboard: The Era of Government-Friendly Bitcoin Miners Is Here
• The University of Cambridge: Bitcoin Mining Map
• ECB’s Christine Lagarde Says ‘Speculative’ Bitcoin Needs Global Regulation

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From the CoinDesk Global Macro news desk, this is Borderless – a twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting Bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. On this episode, Nik, Anna, Daniel and CoinDesk tech reporter Colin Harper discuss Nigerian protestors using bitcoin, the digital yuan reaching retail users in China, the IMF talking about crypto, and more.

In Nigeria, people are protesting police brutality and demanding the abolition of SARS, or the Special Anti-Robbery Squad police unit, an infamous special forces team known for abusing and harassing citizens. 

CoinDesk reporter Colin Harper joins the conversation to talk about how The Feminist Coalition, a movement advocating for women’s rights in Nigeria, has been using bitcoin to fundraise and help people hurt by the police during the protests. After the movement’s bank account was frozen, it switched to bitcoin donations, using bitcoin as a censorship-resistant tool, just as activists in another part of the world – Belarus – are doing.

On the central bank digital currency front, China is charging forward with its digital yuan project: last week, about two million people got free digital yuans in a lottery in Shenzhen. People could spend the giveaway tokens in over 3,000 local stores, as Reuters reported. The consumers haven’t been impressed so far, but maybe that’s only a beginning,

Unlike in China, central bankers in the West are not that sure about CBDCs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) issued a report discussing the benefits of issuing digital tokens by central banks. Maybe the most interesting part, the International Monetary Fund talks about the Big Tech stablecoin projects and what’s at stake there. 

Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson, Anna Baydakova and Colin Harper discuss these issues and more on today’s episode of Borderless.

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From the CoinDesk Global Macro news desk, this is Borderless – a twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting Bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. It’s created by reporters Nikhilesh De, Anna Baydakova and Daniel Nelson.

Last week, two federal U.S.agencies brought charges against BitMEX, one of the world’s largest crypto derivatives trading platforms, alleging the company violated multiple laws by allowing U.S. customers to trade its options contracts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, a prosecutor, claimed the exchange and its owners, CEO Arthur Hayes, CTO Samuel Reed, Ben Delo and Gregory Dwyer violated the Bank Secrecy Act by not conducting any know-your-customer procedures, while the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged that BitMEX allowed U.S. customers to trade on its platform, despite the fact that the startup hadn’t registered as an exchange with the company. The charges are both criminal and civil, and the SDNY announced that while it had arrested one of Hayes’ colleagues, Hayes himself remains at large.

Across the pond, the European Union is preparing to set the fate of its much-hyped “digital euro.” In its latest report, released last week, the bloc’s central bank reiterated the importance of preparing a EU CBDC future but once again refused to commit to it. That decision is expected in the middle of next year. But central bankers are nonetheless thinking through what a “digital euro” might look like right now. For example, one “requirement” is that any “digital euro” should have “cash-like features.” That means broad accessibility, offline capabilities,  widespread acceptance, all the cash-like features we don’t even think about. ECB officials even set “strong european branding” as a requirement.

Belarus has been protesting against its president Alexander Lukashenko since August. And since then, the government has been trying to limit access to the information: in addition to multiple internet outages, local media and political movement websites have been blocked. News publications are looking to new, decentralized tools to fight back.

A San Francisco-based startup called Clostra is offering a peer-to-peer file-sharing service called NewNode. Users can connect devices using the internet, Bluetooth or WiFi hot-spots, sharing information similarly to how torrent clients operate (indeed, Clostra was founded by former BitTorrent director of engineering Stanislav Shalunov). 

Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson and Anna Baydakova discuss these issues and more on today’s episode of Borderless.

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From the CoinDesk Global Macro newsdesk, this is Borderless - A twice-monthly roundup of the most important stories impacting bitcoin and the crypto sector from around the world. It's created by reporters Nikhilesh De, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson

On today’s show: the FinCEN files, AirTM isn’t working in Venezuela the way people hoped and stablecoin regulations are reappearing in the U.S. and Europe.

CoinDesk's inaugural episode of Borderless discusses the FinCEN Files, which showed that not only is a global superpower keeping tabs on thousands of financial transactions, but it doesn't appear to actually be tamping downon the alleged crimes it purportedly wants to halt using this data. What's more, many of these transaction records aren't suspicious. Should the government hold on to this personal and financial data for 20 years?

Stablecoin regulations are resurging in both Europe and the U.S., with government officials in both regions publishing new guidance discussing how stablecoins might be regulated and how issuers can interact with banks. The EU wants stablecoin issuers to abide by strict "e-money" rules, according to draft legislation leaked last week. Meanwhile, a federal banking regulator in the U.S. says nationally regulated banks can offer stablecoin issuers financial services.

This applies specifically to hosted wallets, meaning wallets that are controlled by a trusted (regulated) third party. Wallets where users directly control the keys do not fall into the guidance. For its part, the Securities and Exchange Commission warns that some of these digital assets may or may not look like securities, and recommends that issuers contact it prior to launching a new token.

Another stablecoin story down in Venezuela has us rethinking whether the country’s purported crypto economy is really as robust as the headlines make you think. CoinDesk contributor Jose Rafael Pena Gholam writes that opposition leader Juan Guaido’s attempted airdrop of $19 million in stablecoins to Venezuela's “health heroes” has fallen flat.

The money came from funds seized by U.S authorities. Guaido was hoping to use it to back pay thousands of health workers with a $100 bonus for three months of work, but the drop has been hampered by the Maduro regime and tech hiccups.Reporters Nikhilesh De, Daniel Nelson and Anna Baydakova discuss these issues and more.

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In this episode, Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Kim Grauer, head of research at Chainalysis, about the blockchain analytics firm’s 2021 “Crypto Crime Report,” how to locate where scammers send their money, and the state of crypto regulation and adoption. 

The report, released in February, maps out major crime types associated with cryptocurrencies: crypto scams, ransomware attacks and money laundering, among others. Kim Grauer explains how Chainalysis comes to its conclusions about the geography of crypto transactions, what cyber crimes were on the rise in 2020 and why transaction-tracking software hates mixers. 

Also, we discuss Sandali Handagama’s report about a startup that helps savings groups in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria, to invest in stablecoins and protect against inflation of their national currencies. In Africa, many people don’t have access to banking services, and instead, they do collective savings. Could crypto make this practice easier? 

On the regulatory front: European crypto firm Bitcoin Suisse has failed in its bid to win a banking license. FINMA, the Swiss financial regulator, on Wednesday rejected Bitcoin Suisse’s charter application on grounds the company had weak anti-money laundering defenses. Bitcoin Suisse has been working with banks and regulators in Switzerland for years now, but looks like it’s not enough. 

Stories mentioned in this episode:

• Chainalysis: The Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report
• CoinDesk: Nigerians Turn to Stablecoins for Protection Against Inflation
• CoinDesk: Stellar Development Foundation Invests $750K in Nigeria Remittance Platform
• CoinDesk: Swiss Crypto Firm Bitcoin Suisse Turned Down on Banking License
• CoinDesk: EU Regulators Warn Again on Crypto Investment Risks

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.

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A collection of 5,000 .jpg files just sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. Why? Because it’s art, it’s digital and it’s on a blockchain. Hosts Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson dive into the non-fungible token (NFT) phenomenon and its wildest, eye-popping twist yet on “Borderless” this week, discussing what makes NFTs so valuable and whether they’re here to stay – potentially turning the art world on its head. Even hackers are paying attention.

The conversation then turns to Israel, where local media reported the Altschuler Shacham pension fund invested $100 million in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust at $21,000. (Grayscale is owned by CoinDesk parent company DCG). It’s the latest example of traditionally conservative money flowing into the historically volatile crypto. Danny and Anna discuss the trend. 

Finally, “Borderless” heads to New Zealand where a startup’s started minting one of the world’s earliest fully compliant stablecoin. With currency digitization sweeping across borders, the hosts consider how the future of money might be shaped by corporations and governments, too.

Articles in the podcast: 

https://www.coindesk.com/beeple-nft-christies-auction

https://www.coindesk.com/israeli-pension-giant-put-100m-into-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-report

https://www.coindesk.com/new-zealand-stablecoin-techemynt

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This week on “Borderless,” Anna Baydakova and Danny Nelson speak with Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, about the intersection of bitcoin and activism, how global movements are using blockchain and what governments might try to do to stop it.

As more world governments step up their digital and financial surveillance measures, bitcoin has become a safe haven for pockets of oppressed. For example, in Nigeria female activists now harness bitcoin to get around government-ordered banking blockades. Alex and his partners at Human Rights Foundation use crypto grants and vocal advocacy to spotlight their stories.

At the same time, some governments have begun treating bitcoin as a tool of their own. The hosts discuss with Alex the ramifications of bitcoin weaponization and consider whether the problem is as bad as the United Nations makes it out to be. Does North Korea really fund its nuclear weapons program with stolen crypto? Alex has a lot to say.

Later in the episode, the hosts take on the non-fungible token (NFT) craze that’s taking the digital collectibles world by storm. What makes a LeBron James video worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, anyway?

Did you enjoy the show? We would love to hear what you think. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your preferred service and talk to us directly via email at borderless@coindesk.com.

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