Winklevoss brothers, founder of the Gemini crypto exchange and billionaires have to bite the dust in the recent lawsuit filed by them on Charlie Shrem. Last month, the twin brothers sealed a case in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Winklevoss twins alleged that Shrem took some part of their $250k investment in his BitInstant exchange, to buy 5000 BTC.
The attachment order granted on Oct. 2 was sealed until the Oct. 26. Herein, the U.S. Marshal for the Southern District allowed freezing Shrem’s assets. However, in a recent last Thursday, federal Judge Jed Rakoff has given the decision in Shrem’s favor while asking to end the freeze on his assets.
Judge Rakoff wrote:
“After careful consideration, the Court denies plaintiff’s motion to confirm the order of attachment and therefore lifts the attachment currently in place, effective immediately.”
He further added:
“An opinion explaining the reasons for this ruling will issue in due course.”
However, the judge didn’t present the timeline on when the opinion shall be further issued.
In their earlier charges, the Winklevoss brothers alleged Shrem of using their investment to spend on his lavish lifestyle. Shrem has previously been held guilty of helping users of the of the dark web marketplace SilkRoad. He has also served a year in prison for helping those users make illegal purchases.
According to the
“Either Shrem has been incredibly lucky and successful since leaving prison, or — more likely — he ‘acquired’ his six properties, two Maseratis, two powerboats and other holdings with the appreciated value of the 5,000 bitcoin he stole.”
Shrem’s Counter to The Charges
Although Shrem faced such severe charges, he pleaded to be not guilty of them. He argued in the court that he never owned those Bitcoins and that they belonged to an unnamed industry member.
According to , lawyer Tyler Meade representing Winklevoss’ side demanded the court to continue the freeze on Shrem’s assets. The lawyer also quoted the figure saying that Shrem possessed $12 in real estate holdings, cryptocurrencies, and other assets.
On the contrary, Shrem’s attorney Brian Klein expressed satisfaction over the judge’s ruling. In an email to , Klein said that the ruling “is an important first step towards [Shrem’s] complete vindication.” “We are very pleased the judge ruled in [Shrem’s] favor, dissolving the $30 million-plus attachment order after he heard extensive argument from both sides earlier today,” he wrote.
In this edition of The Daily, we cover the launch of Binance Research, a new analysis division that will produce in-depth reports for customers of the leading cryptocurrency trading platform. We also look at Cobinhood’s decision to add several stablecoins to its platform and the reasoning behind the move. In addition, we focus on SWIFT’s denial of rumors that it has partnered with Ripple, as well as a plot of virtual land that was sold on Decentraland for a record amount of money.
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Binance Research Starts With Two Reports
Binance, currently the largest digital asset exchange in terms of daily trading volume, has launched a new analysis division. Binance Research will focus on creating institutional-grade research reports, the trading platform said in an announcement on its website. Binance has referred to the service as a new pillar of its ecosystem and claims it’s going to bring more transparency, while also improving the quality of information that’s available in the cryptocurrency space.
Binance Research has already produced two detailed reports. The first one is devoted to Loom Network, a solution for Ethereum that allows for scalable user-facing and games. The second report covers Gochain, a scalable and decentralized blockchain that supports smart contracts and distributed applications. The research division’s next report will be about Pundi X, a company that has built a platform enabling cryptocurrency payments through .
This past summer, the cryptocurrency exchange also an educational portal called Binance Academy. The platform was announced as an open-access learning hub supported by the team of the company. Binance was established in China last year and has since expanded globally to become the leading trading platform in the crypto space.
Cobinhood Announces Support for Stablecoins
Cobinhood, a platform that exchanges cryptocurrencies without trading fees, has announced that it’s adding four to its offerings. Starting Nov. 9, users will be able to trade gemini dollar (GUSD), makerdao (DAI), the paxos standard token (PAX) and trueusd (TUSD).
In a press release, Cobinhood explained its decision to list the coins. It noted that each one of them has unique features, but said all of them are designed to ensure greater market stability, as regular cryptocurrencies can be particularly volatile. The Taiwanese company also explained that the newly added tokens will be available on its platform for deposits, withdrawals and trading.
“We are increasing the presence of stablecoins on the Cobinhood exchange so the community understands that their voices have been heard and stability is being made possible,” said Wei-Ning Huang, co-founder of Cobinhood. “Our mission is to make the space more approachable for anyone who wants to participate.”
SWIFT Denies Rumors of Partnership With Ripple
SWIFT, the international consortium that operates a worldwide network enabling banks to transmit messages and financial transactions, has denied recent rumors about the integration of Ripplenet technologies as part of its next system upgrade. A spokesperson for told Finance Magnates the changes had nothing to do with Ripple.
The upcoming upgrade involves an add-on to SWIFT’s global payments innovation (GPI) system. The standard was introduced in January of last year in order to increase the operating speed of the payment network, which has been used in correspondent banking for decades. The upgrade was announced this past spring and is scheduled to be implemented on Nov. 18.
Plot of Virtual Land Sold for $215,000
An investor recently purchased a 126-parcel plot of land on Decentraland for 2.7 million mana, the virtual reality platform’s native token. The acquisition, valued at roughly $215,000, sets a new record for Decentraland, which is owned by its users. The estate was purchased via the platform’s marketplace. It allows users to trade “LAND parcels,” which represent non-fungible digital assets maintained through a smart contract on the Ethereum network.
The virtual reality project recently a new version of Agora, a platform that allows holders of mana tokens to vote on important matters. One of the first questions they are being asked concerns the time frame for the next land auction, when 9,000 unowned parcels of land will be made available to the community.
What are your thoughts on today’s news tidbits? Tell us in the comments section.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
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