Author: The Telegraph
British authorities have made their first ever seizures of NFTs, the Telegraph can reveal, amid rising fears that the boom in digital art is providing new ways for criminals to hide money. HM Revenue & Customs seized three Non-Fungible Tokens as part of an investigation into an attempt to defraud the taxman of £1.4m. Three people were also arrested in the alleged VAT repayment fraud. Officials said the action was “warning to anyone who thinks they can use crypto assets to hide money”. HMRC added that the suspects, who cannot be named, were using “sophisticated” methods to hide themselves, including…
The founder of Britain’s biggest cryptocurrency company has attacked the City watchdog for choking the industry and warned that London is losing ground to EU rivals as a result. Peter Smith, the chief executive of Blockchain.com, told The Telegraph that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had taken a “risk-management first approach” that came “at the expense of innovation”. He said: “I think the UK has definitely fallen behind over the last two or three years. The FCA, of late, hasn’t been eager enough to foster innovation and to work with the industry.” The regulator has pursued a series of crackdowns on…
Around £500bn has been wiped off the value of cryptocurrencies in the past month as investors have dumped digital assets. The price of Bitcoin, the largest and oldest online token, has fallen 35pc in the past 30 days. It now trades at $33,300 (£25,000), around half its all-time high of $69,000 reached in November last year. Its total market value has dropped from just over £700bn to around £400bn in that time. Other popular cryptocurrencies have also crashed in value include Ethereum, which has fallen 47pc, and Solana, which has dropped 57pc, according to Coinbase, the brokerage. Cryptocurrencies – which proponents say act…
Tesla’s Bitcoin holdings are believed to be worth less than what the company bought them for as the currency crashes to a six month low. Tesla is facing a loss on its Bitcoin investments after a slump in the cryptocurrency’s price. Bitcoin fell to a low of $33,046 on Monday and has fallen by more than a fifth in the last week amid global market uncertainty and a slump in technology stocks. It is now trading at a six month low, and is now trading below the price at which the electric car giant is believed to have placed a $1.5bn…