Author: The Washington Post
Religious Muslims are debating over what their faith has to say about Bitcoin, dogecoin and the rest of the crypto universe. Mu’aawiyah Tucker is a religious man. Because the Koran forbids the practice of earning interest on loans, Tucker has for years tried to avoid traditional banks. For a while, he became a self-described “gold bug,” putting savings into the precious metal. But then, Tucker, 40, discovered bitcoin. Today, the London-based programmer and web designer runs a YouTube channel trying to dispel concerns other Muslims may have about cryptocurrency and arguing that they actually have benefits for those seeking to…
Unlike the NBA, pro football has held back on the new-era currency. How soon will that change? When 100 million Americans tune in to the Super Bowl on Sunday, they’re likely to get the impression that cryptocurrency is a fresh NFL star to rival Joe Burrow. At least three commercials will promote the monetary form, while one of Sunday’s best-known players — the Rams’ Odell Beckham Jr. — has said he takes his salary in it. And though Tom Brady may be gone from the game, he hovers over it, hawking crypto exchange FTX. Yet the hype belies a more complicated relationship. Unlike the National…
The Justice Department announced Tuesday it had seized more than $3.6 billion in bitcoin allegedly stolen as part of a 2016 hack of Bitfinex, saying authorities have also arrested and charged a husband and wife in New York for allegedly trying to launder the cryptocurrency fortune. Officials said Ilya Lichtenstein, 34, and his wife, Heather Morgan, 31, were arrested on charges of conspiring to launder money. They are accused of trying to launder 119,754 bitcoin that were stolen after a hacker breached Bitfinex, a cryptocurrency exchange, and initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions. Prosecutors said the bitcoin was sent to a…
I want to talk about crypto, but first a quick question: Have you tried Wordle? Full disclosure: I was a relative latecomer to this variation on the old Mastermind game. When it started showing up on my social media feeds last month, my contrarian instincts kicked in. Part of it might have been an aversion to something new and part of it might have been that I watched “The Game” episode from “Star Trek: TNG” too many times at a formative age. The point is, I eventually broke down and tried it. It’s fun and free (for now)! As a diversion while I…
I’ve learned a few things in more than two decades of writing about personal finance and investment culture. Most takeaways are fairly simple, the sorts of things that can be put on an index card. Here’s one rule that never fails: If you hear someone saying “this time is different,” pause. Take a deep breath. And then remember: This time is never different. Unfortunately, many people don’t do that. Which goes a long way toward explaining what’s been happening in the markets, especially in tech stocks and cryptocurrencies. The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index fell Wednesday, after Federal Reserve Chair…
Melania Trump began 2022 by announcing she’d be auctioning off a hat, along with two other items, for the low, low starting bid of $250,000. Her website, MelaniaTrump.com, allowed the bids only to be made in cryptocurrency. Remember this. This will be important. She called the auction the “Head of State” collection. It included the custom-made, wide-brimmed white hat she’d worn to meet French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, during the Trumps’ first state visit at the White House in April 2018 — autographed — plus a watercolor of Trump in the hat, and a non-fungible token, or NFT,…
While interest in crypto has exploded, few people are using it for its intended purpose: to pay for things. Billionaire tech executive Michael Saylor has called bitcoin “the seminal invention of the human race.” His website describes it as “a bank in cyberspace” offering a “simple, & secure savings account to billions of people.” He recently claimed ownership of 17,732 bitcoin worth about $740 million. But one thing Saylor cannot do with bitcoin is pay for the $18 shrimp cocktail at Tony and Joe’s Seafood Place several floors below his penthouse apartment on Washington’s Georgetown waterfront. Though Tony and Joe’s…