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Las Vegas LocalBitcoins Trader Accused of Money Laundering

Las vegas localbitcoins trader accused of money laundering

Las Vegas LocalBitcoins Trader Accused of Money Laundering

Las vegas localbitcoins trader accused of money laundering
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CEO of bitcoin, Inc., Morgan Rockcoons was arrested by officials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at his home in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering according to the court records.

According to those records, in December 2017 Rockoons allegedly exchanged 10 Bitcoins (Worth $9,000) at that time for $14,500 in cash with an undercover law enforcement officer. The officer mentioned that the cash came from the manufacture and sales of “Hash Oil” which is a banned substance in the United States.

Since Rockoons knew the cash was dirty and helped the law enforcement officer acquire bitcoins for it, he was accused of laundering the money. Also, he was charged with running an unlicensed money transmitting business since the transaction was more than $10,000. Legitimate money transmitters are required to register with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Unit (FinCEN) by law if they’re facilitating transmits over $10,000, and Rockoons wasn’t registered.

A different side to the story

Rockoons, on the other hand, had an entirely different story in a series of tweets. He claims the law enforcement official said the money was for buying a medicinal hash machine and not that it was dirty money. Also, he claims the transaction was perfectly legal since the transaction took place in California and Cannabis is legal for both medicinal and recreational use in the state.

Rockoons said the buyer found him through LocalBitcoins, which is a peer-to-peer exchange for buyers and sellers to meet and transact Bitcoins. Then, the buyer insisted on paying him $14,500 for $9,000 worth Bitcoins to entrap him. So he received the money and sent Bitcoins worth less than $10,000 which he claims is still legal.

Rockoons insists that he never does any transaction above $10,000 and that he only did this one since he was in need of cash. He also claimed that the money was paid by cash in an envelope and the person had only contacted him through text messages.

Morgan Rockoons was locked up in jail for five days before he was released. He is fighting the charges in court and has taken to Twitter to ask donations for his legal fees which he expects to be around $150,000 – $300,000. He’s been trying to appeal to the community, by calling his case an attack on bitcoin. He’s already received some donation, and he intends to pay his lawyers in bitcoin.

Though Rockoons took to Twitter to tell his side of the story, not everyone is buying it. Some people feel he should’ve known something was wrong here when someone offered to pay him $14,500 for Bitcoins worth just $9,000.

This is not the first time a US law-enforcement agency has tried entrapping LocalBitcoin sellers. In fact, in October last year, a Michigan man was imprisoned for selling Bitcoins worth more than $56,000 to law enforcement agents. The only difference here is that Rockoons denies any wrongdoing and is determined to fight it out in the court.

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Published at Thu, 01 Mar 2018 07:46:17 +0000

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3Commas – Smart Tools for Intelligent Cryptocurrency Traders

3Commas is a suite of “smart tools” to help cryptocurrency investors minimize risks, limit losses, grow profits, and manage their portfolios across multiple exchanges.


Saint Petersburg, Russia-based 3Commas offers experienced and beginning traders alike a suite of “smart tools” designed to help them manage their portfolios across multiple cryptocurrency exchanges while maximizing profits and limiting losses.

Before test-driving the platform, Bitcoinist sat down with 3Commas CMO Mike Goryunov to talk about what prompted the team to develop the platform in the first place:

It’s kind of a funny story because we originally built this platform for our own use only. When we showed our project to friends in the crypto community, we saw a big need for the kinds of tools 3commas has and so we decided to open the project to everyone.

3Commas opened to the public in September 2017 and, primarily through word of mouth, has grown to over 5000 active traders and an average daily trade volume of over $5 million USD.

Tools and Features

The first thing that caught our attention about 3Commas was the clean, uncluttered interface. The platform offers a simple, logical user experience whether you are accessing it via a desktop computer or mobile device. Russian and English language options are available, as well, with additional languages in the works.

Tools and Features - 3Commas Dashboard

Cryptocurrency exchange integrations

3Commas integrates with Poloniex, Bittrex, Bitfinex, Binance, and any Ethereum wallet and the process of hooking up your exchange account to the platform is fast and simple thanks to easy-to-follow illustrated documentation. Additional exchanges will be added throughout the coming year.

To minimize risk and to encourage smart trading habits, 3Commas has implemented two tools that every trader should learn to take advantage of – Trailing Stop Loss and Trailing Take Profit.

Trailing Stop Loss and Trailing Take Profit.

Trailing Stop Loss

A Trailing Stop Loss order is identical to a standard Stop Loss order in all respects except one. Both let you minimize your losses in the event of a price drop, but unlike a Stop Loss order that is set manually at a fixed price threshold, a Trailing Stop Loss order is percentage-based and automatically adjusts to price fluctuations.

For example, let’s say you purchase 10 ETH at $675 each and to minimize any potential losses, you set a Stop Loss order of 10%. This means that if the price of ETH drops below $607.50, the stop loss order will automatically execute, selling your ETH at that price.

But what if the price of ETH goes *up* during the day? A standard Stop Loss order will still only execute when the price drops below 10% of the original buy-in price. A Trailing Stop Loss order, however, automatically adjusts to the price change. So if the price of ETH goes up by 15%, the Trailing Stop Loss order would trigger when the adjusted price drops by 10%, netting you a 5% gain.

Trailing Take Profit

Just like how the Trailing Stop Loss tool is designed to minimize losses, the Trailing Take Profit tool is designed to maximize gains. Using our Ethereum example from above, let’s say you buy 10 ETH at $675 each and set a standard Take Profit order at $700. This means that you would make a profit of $25 per ETH.

But what if ETH goes higher than $700? You’ve just lost additional potential profit. A Trailing Take Profit order lets you sell at the highest part of a trend by selling at a percentage of the highest value. So if you set a Trailing Take Profit order of 10% and ETH climbs to $800 and then falls, the sell order would take effect when the price falls below $720 ($800 – 10% = $720), netting you a profit of $45 per ETH.

Custom Portfolios

3Commas Portfolios tool is a unique feature that not only lets users track their actual portfolio’s performance over time, but also lets them create custom “dream portfolios” of tokens and coins that they think could be profitable. These custom portfolios are publicly available to other users who can analyze them and even add them to their own actual portfolio.

Custom Portfolios

The Road Ahead

2018 looks to be a very busy year for 3Commas. Several new trading tools will be added, including social trading and arbitrage trading. Social trading, which we are told will be rolled out sometime in February 2018, lets users ‘follow’ their favorite traders and copy their trades.

Arbitrage trading will allow users to take advantage of price differences between one exchange and another. Essentially, traders will be able to buy low on one exchange and sell high on another.  True crypto arbitrage trading capabilities are few and far between, so the launch of this tool, in particular, should be of great interest to the crypto community.

For more information about 3Commas, or to try it out for yourself, visit 3commas.io.

Ringing in the New Year with a 50% Bonus

In true holiday spirit, and to usher in the new year in grand style, 3Commas are giving users a 50% bonus on all deposits from December 31, 2017, through January 3, 2018. No promo code is needed. Just sign up at 3Commas (or sign in if you’re already a registered user) and make your deposits. Bonuses will be credited automatically.

Ringing in the New Year with a 50% Deposit Bonus at 3Commas

Have you tried 3Commas yet? Which of their trading and portfolio management tools do you find to be the most useful? Let us know in the comments below.


Images courtesy of 3Commas, Shutterstock

The post 3Commas – Smart Tools for Intelligent Cryptocurrency Traders appeared first on Bitcoinist.com.

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