Mastercard announced on Wednesday it was planning to offer support for some cryptocurrencies on its network this year. Reuters reports: Mastercard already offers customers cards that allow people to transact using their cryptocurrencies, although without going through its network. "Doing this work will create a lot more possibilities for shoppers and merchants, allowing them to transact in an entirely new form of payment. This change may open merchants up to new customers who are already flocking to digital assets," Mastercard said. Mastercard specified that not all cryptocurrencies will be supported on its network, adding that many of the hundreds of digital assets in circulation still need to tighten their compliance measures. The announcement comes after Elon Musk revealed it had purchased $1.5 billion of bitcoin and would soon accept it as a form of payment.

Eight men were arrested across England and Scotland this week as part of a coordinated crackdown against a SIM swapping gang that has hijacked the identities and social media profiles of US celebrities. From a report: The UK National Crime Agency, which made the arrests on Tuesday, said the gang targeted well-known sports stars, musicians, and influencers, primarily located in the US. "These arrests follow earlier ones in Malta (1) and Belgium (1) of other members belonging to the same criminal network," Europol, which coordinated the multi-national investigation, said today. Officials said this gang engaged in SIM swapping attacks, where they tricked US mobile operators into assigning a celebrity's phone number to a new SIM card under the attacker's control. While they had access to the victim's phone number, the SIM swappers would reset passwords and bypass two-factor authentication on the victim's accounts. "This enabled them to steal money, bitcoin and personal information, including contacts synced with online accounts," the NCA said. Europol said the gang stole more than $100 million worth of cryptocurrency using this method

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: Tesla's $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin may be good for Elon Musk, but it's definitely risky for the company that made him the world's richest man, according to investors, analysts and money managers at some of the country's largest banks. As a standard bearer for the consumer electric vehicle industry and the broader climate tech movement rallying around it, Tesla's bet to go all in on crypto could damage its climate bona fides and its reputation with customers even as other automakers pour in to the EV market. Given Bitcoin's current environmental footprint, the deal flies in the face of Tesla's purported interest in moving the world to cleaner sources of energy and commerce. Until the energy grid decarbonizes in places like Russia and China, mining bitcoin remains a pretty dirty business (from an energy perspective), according to some energy investors who declined to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about Musk's plans.

"We were talking about people doing this in Russia back in 2018 and how they were tapping coal power to run their mining operations," one investor said. "The cost per transaction from an energy intensity standpoint has only gotten more intense. I don't see how those things coalesce, climate and crypto." The stake makes Tesla one of the largest corporate holders of Bitcoin but represents a massive portion of the company's $19 billion in cash and cash equivalents on hand. "Given the size of their treasury it feels irresponsible, IMO," wrote one investor whose firm backed Tesla from its earliest days. The company's move could be seen as another example of the absurdity of U.S. capital markets in today's investment climate -- and the underlying cynicism of some of its biggest beneficiaries. "The announcement that Tesla has diversified its treasury through the addition of bitcoin is not surprising, nor is the assuredness implied by an 8% allocation of cash-on-hand. Equal to Tesla's R&D expenditure for 2020, this investment is significant to the Company and shows a commitment to maximizing shareholder returns," wrote Stillmark founding partner Alyse Killeen. "Elon Musk has a long history of operating at the precipice of what's possible technically and setting the trend of what's to later become common operationally. I suspect the same will be true here, and that Tesla is the first of a larger cohort of publicly-traded companies that will aim to optimize the returns of their cash via bitcoin."

RBC Capital Markets says Apple should follow in Tesla's footsteps by getting into cryptocurrencies. Bloomberg reports: The iPhone maker could create a sizable new market for growth if it were to develop its Apple Wallet into a crypto exchange, said analyst Mitch Steves. "The wallet initiative appears to be a clear multi-billion dollar opportunity for the firm (potential for well over $40 billion in annual revenue with limited R&D)," Steves wrote in a note to clients. Companies like Square and PayPal, along with closely held exchanges like Coinbase, have all validated the exchange model as a real business, he said, and Apple would immediately gain market share if it were to enter the industry. In addition, Apple's ecosystem would offer improved security relative to the companies that would be its competitors.

While Apple's biggest cryptocurrency opportunity would be in building an exchange, it could also consider adding Bitcoin or another digital currency to its balance sheet, RBC wrote. "This would send even more users to 'Apple Exchange,'" Steves said, and would likely further boost Bitcoin prices. Yesterday, Elon Musk announced that Tesla invested $1.5 billion in Bitcoin and said it may accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the future. As a result, Bitcoin prices climbed as much as 16%, cresting $44,000 and hitting a record.

A Reddit user claiming to be a Tesla insider appeared to announce the carmaker's purchase of bitcoin a month ago, according to a January post on the platform that said the electric carmaker had bought $800 million worth of Bitcoin. Reuters reports: The post here received little attention when it appeared, with the date on it reading Jan. 2, but it is getting a second look now, a day after the electric carmaker, led by Elon Musk, disclosed a $1.5-billion investment in the cryptocurrency, sending Bitcoin to fresh highs. "I am a software dev working at R&D at Tesla in California, over the past 72 hours our company bought 24701 BTC at an average price of 33142$," a user with the handle TSLAinsider posted in the bitcoin subreddit. "I have no idea what will happen once this reaches the newspapers but I think the price will explode even more," the user wrote.

Moderators in r/Tesla, a subreddit dedicated to posts on the electric carmaker, appeared to remove the post here. It was left up in r/bitcoin, where the cryptocurrency is discussed. Reuters could not verify the user's identity, whether the user is a Tesla employee or whether the post was modified from the original. Tesla did not immediately respond to an email to its press office. [...] As the post was focused on bitcoin, the tipper may benefit from a gray area in oversight and enforcement, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) does not treat the cryptocurrency as a security, one expert said.

Today in an SEC filing, Tesla disclosed that it has acquired $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin, the popular cryptocurrency. Moreover, the company noted that it may also accept bitcoin in the future as a form of payment for its cars, though it did allow that there is some regulatory uncertainty around that effort. From a report: As the news broke, the price of bitcoin instantly rose by around 7% to more than $40,000 per coin. Tesla had previously telegraphed that it had an interest in the cryptocurrency, however to purchase such a large block of the coin is notable. In its filing, Tesla writes that earlier this year it "updated [its] investment policy to provide [it] with more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on [its] cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity," adding that it has the option of putting cash into "certain alternative reserve assets" that include "digital assets, gold bullion, gold exchange-traded funds and other assets as specified in the future." Under that banner, the firm has "invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin," going on to say that the well-known electric car company "may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time or long-term."

Friday the 71-year-old former lead singer of the band Kiss tweeted "I bought Dogecoin...six figures," to his 922,000 followers, along with other supportive tweets.

Saturday rap artist Snoop Dogg tweeted an image of "Snoop Doge" to his 19.2 million followers.

Later Elon Musk tweeted a picture from the Lion King with Musk's head appearing on a monkey holding up a monkey with Gene Simmons' head, holding up a monkey with Snoop Dogg's head, holding up a Shiba Inu dog (symbolizing Dogecoin). The text of the tweet to his 45.9 million followers: "So... it's finally come to this..." (He also later tweeted "Dogecoin to the Moooonn".)

Hours later Bloomberg reported that Dogecoin "rose 46% in the last 24 hours to 7.4 cents as of 1 p.m. in New York on Sunday," citing data from CoinMarketCap. In fact, Dogecoin is now approaching its all-time high, with a market value of $9.5 billion, making it the world's 10th-largest cryptocurrency. ("Bitcoin has also rallied this week, topping a record of $40,000, before paring gains.")

Business Insider calls Dogecoin a "meme-based cryptocurrency," noting it's "benefited" from the mania driven by Reddit's WallStreetBets. But they also point its year-to-date returns were about 1,032.91% (according to CoinDesk calculations).

"In a world gone mad with a pandemic and social upheaval, cryptocurrencies are having a moment," writes the Chicago Tribune: [Dogecoin] bubbled along for years at well under a penny, but in 2018 leapt to a high of nearly 2 cents as part of a larger cryptocurrency bubble. It didn't last — within a day it was worth less than 1 cent again — but that set a pattern in which everyone from TikTokkers to Musk could make the price jump with some online attention, all the while egged on by investors cheering, "To the moon!" Still, it took the recent stock run-up to catapult the currency to an unprecedented pinnacle, as commenters begged each other not to sell to keep the price high...

Ja'Mal Green, a Black Lives Matter activist and former Chicago mayoral candidate who said he has "many thousands" of Dogecoins, sees the currency as a way for people without much money or financial expertise to get in the game with hedge funds and billionaires. "I like how these groups are coming together to really talk about what it means to play in cryptocurrency or stocks, to play in the market," he said. "It's great to see the bottom 99% come together to figure out how they can achieve wealth together and bridge that economic gap a bit."

But Eric Budish, a professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business who studies cryptocurrencies, warned they are particularly vulnerable to bubbles because they are not tied to economic fundamentals in the way a stock price (ideally) reflects a company's earnings. As long as everyone holds, he said, the price will indeed go up. The problem is you can never be sure you've picked the right time to cash out. "When people try to sell, the price will come down," he said. "That means everybody wants to sell first. Nobody wants to be the last guy selling, and that's sort of the essence of a pump and dump...."

Nelson Morales, a Beach Park, Illinois, data center engineer who runs a Facebook group called Cryptocurrency of Greater Chicago, has his doubts about the currency. He worries about inexperienced investors getting drawn into a "dangerous, roulette-style pump" that could end with a disastrous crash.

Still, that hasn't stopped him from putting $50 of his own into Dogecoin. "I just want to have a canary in the tunnel," he said. "The canary's still alive. I'm impressed."

The city of Miami is considering giving its employees the opportunity to get their salaries paid in bitcoin. It's all part of a plan to bring more tech entrepreneurs to Miami.

In addition to the bitcoin salaries, the city is also considering allowing local fees and taxes to be paid in bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency. The city's treasury may also place some of its investment capital into bitcoin, which would be a first for major cities in the U.S. Forbes reports: While in exact percentage or absolute terms, [Miami's mayor, Mayor Francis Suarez] hasn't got an exact figure for how much investment he wants to place -- yet he knows he wants to structure it in a public-private partnership where private partners can take some of the reward for defraying risk from the public side. An hypothetical example with arbitrary numbers: the city would invest about $250,000 in public funds into a fund that would be supplemented with $750,000 in private bitcoin from three large investors. The private investors would get the first funds out to guarantee their return, while the city would benefit from anything left.

He's also keeping an eye out on the bitcoin ecosystem and events, having spoken at a bitcoin event a couple of years ago, and looking to bring the Bitcoin 2021 Conference to Miami. Finally, the mayor is considering financing his reelection campaign in bitcoin, joining a small selection of politicians who have raised funds in bitcoin. Combined with his social media presence, the efforts could bear fruit that helps solidify his tech-friendly persona, as well as the treasury for his next re-election.

Yesterday, in an earnings call, Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said that the firm wants to "work with wallets and exchanges" on handling crypto, and has called bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies "digital gold." Cryptocurrency News reports: During his talk, Kelly spent a significant amount of time discussing crypto. After differentiating a divide between "cryptocurrencies that represent new assets such as bitcoin" and "digital currencies and stablecoins" backed by fiat holdings, he stated: "We see all [cryptocurrencies] as digital gold. They are predominantly held as assets that are not used as a form of payment in a significant way at this point. Our strategy here is to work with wallets and exchanges to enable users to purchase these currencies using their Visa credentials or to cash out onto our Visa credential to make fiat purchase[s]."

The Visa chief appeared to be keen to leave the door open for all crypto projects that show promise, pledging that should "a specific digital currency become a recognized means of exchange, there's no reason why we cannot add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies." And Kelly appeared ready to court the custom of stablecoin issuers -- as well as digital currency-issuing central banks. He said: "For [...] stablecoins and central bank digital currencies, these are an emerging payments innovation that could have the potential to be used for global commerce, much like any other fiat currency. We think of digital currencies running on public blockchains as additional networks [...] we see them as part of our network of networks strategy. [...] We are the clear leader in this space."

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Motherboard: Sam Summers was sitting at home with his penis wrapped in an internet-connected chastity cage when he got a weird message on the app that connects to the device. Someone told him they had taken control and they wanted around $1,000 in Bitcoin to give control back to Summers. "Initially, I thought it was my partner doing that," Summers told Motherboard in a phone call. "It sounds silly, but I got a bit excited by it." But when Summers called his partner, she told him it wasn't her, even after he told her their safe word. That's when he realized he had gotten hacked. His penis was locked in the cage, and he had no way out.

Summers is one of several people who purchased a chastity cage device called Cellmate and produced by Qiui, a China-based manufacturer. Some of the device's owners got their accounts -- and thus their devices as well -- hacked at the end of last year, after security researchers warned that the manufacturer left an exposed and vulnerable API, which could allow hackers to take control of the devices.

Scared and a bit desperate, Summers realized he had some Bitcoin stashed in an old account. So he sent the hacker what they wanted, hoping that would be it. But when the hacker got the money, they asked for more, according to Summers. "That's when I felt fucking stupid and angry," Summers said. At that point, Summers and his partner started brainstorming ways to get his penis out of the cage. At home, they only had a hammer, so they went out and bought a pair of bolt cutters. His partner tried first, but she couldn't break through. So Summers had to do it himself. The way he was holding his penis put it "in a dangerous spot," he said, so it was "very scary." Nonetheless, he was able to break the cage, but the cutters still cut through him, he said. "I don't have a scar or anything but I was bleeding and it fucking hurt," Summers said.

Robinhood restricted trading in cryptocurrencies on Friday, as the price of bitcoin and a meme-inspired token rose sharply. From a report: Users began reporting that the trading app had halted instant deposits for crypto purchases earlier in the day, meaning they could only buy the currencies with funds already deposited in their accounts. Such deposits can take up to five business days to clear, Robinhood said. "Due to extraordinary market conditions, we've temporarily turned off Instant buying power for crypto," a Robinhood spokesperson said in a statement emailed to CNBC. "Customers can still use settled funds to buy crypto. We'll keep monitoring market conditions and communicating with our customers." Robinhood's move to restrict crypto trading comes after dogecoin, a digital coin based on the popular "doge" meme, spiked as much as 800% Friday. The cryptocurrency was initially started as a joke but has since found some traction.

In a blog post today, Coinbase announced that its public debut will be a direct listing instead of a traditional IPO. From the announcement: Coinbase Global, Inc. today announced its intent to become a publicly-traded company pursuant to a proposed direct listing of its Class A common stock. Such proposed listing is expected to be pursuant to a registration statement on Form S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). Coinbase Global, Inc. previously announced on December 17, 2020 that it had confidentially submitted a draft registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC. The Form S-1 is expected to become effective after the SEC completes its review process, subject to market and other conditions.

This announcement does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. Any offers, solicitations or offers to buy, or any sales of securities will be made in accordance with the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"). This announcement is being issued in accordance with Rule 135 under the Securities Act. "Coinbase's public listing has been hotly anticipated as a potential tipping point for the cryptocurrency industry to go mainstream," reports Axios. "The direct listing route -- which allows existing shareholders to sell their stock into the market while the company doesn't raise new funds -- has been slowly gaining more traction with Palantir and Asana as the latest to go that direction."

The city of Miami on Wednesday uploaded a copy of the Bitcoin white paper to its municipal website, joining a growing chorus of governments and companies now hosting bitcoin's original blueprint. From a report: Mayor Francis Suarez emphasized his commitment to "turn Miami into a hub for crypto innovation" in his tweet announcing the upload. He's been pumping the U.S. city's potential as a landing ground for California tech expats for weeks on social media. Miami is the "first municipal government to host Satoshi's white paper," Suarez asserted. Also see: Twitter thread on who else is participating.

Business Insider reports: The bitcoin price was set for its biggest one-week fall since September on Saturday morning, having slipped around 10% since Monday...

Bitcoin came under selling pressure this week after Janet Yellen, Joe Biden's pick for Treasury secretary, suggested the use of cryptocurrencies should be "curtailed" because they were used mainly for "illicit financing".
Writing at Nasdaq.com on Thursday, CoinDesk shared a link to U.S. Treasury Secretary nominee Janet Yellen's later written responses to the same questions, where Yellen states that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies also offer potential benefits to the U.S. and its allies.

"At the same time, it also presents opportunities for states and non-state actors looking to circumvent the current financial system and undermine American interests. For example, the Central Bank of China just issued its first digital currency." I think it is important we consider the benefits of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and the potential they have to improve the efficiency of the financial system. At the same time, we know they can be used to finance terrorism, facilitate money laundering, and support malign activities that threaten U.S. national security interests and the integrity of the U.S. and international financial systems.

I think we need to look closely at how to encourage their use for legitimate activities while curtailing their use for malign and illegal activities. If confirmed, I intend to work closely with the Federal Reserve Board and the other federal banking and securities regulators on how to implement an effective regulatory framework for these and other fintech innovations.

Extortion groups that send emails threatening companies with DDoS attacks unless paid a certain fee are making a comeback, security firm Radware warned today. From a report: In a security alert sent to its customers and shared with ZDNet this week, Radware said that during the last week of 2020 and the first week of 2021, its customers received a new wave of DDoS extortion emails. Extortionists threatened companies with crippling DDoS attacks unless they got paid between 5 and 10 bitcoins ($150,000 to $300,000).

Radware said that some of the emails it seen were sent by a group that was active over the 2020 summer when the extortionists targeted many financial organizations across the world. Companies that received this group's emails last summer also received new threats over the winter, Radware said. The security firm believes that the rise in the Bitcoin-to-USD price has led to some groups returning to or re-prioritizing DDoS extortion schemes.

Software development services provider Sequoia Holdings said on Thursday its employees can now receive a part of their salary in cryptocurrencies, should they choose to. From a report: Under the new program, employees can elect to defer a portion of their salary into bitcoin, bitcoin cash, or the Ethereum platform's ether, Sequoia Holdings said. Earlier this month, Bitcoin, the world's most popular cryptocurrency, hit a record high of $40,000, rallying more than 900% from a low in March and having only just breached $20,000 in mid-December.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Cryptocurrencies could come under renewed regulatory scrutiny over the next four years if Janet Yellen, Joe Biden's pick to lead the Treasury Department, gets her way. During Yellen's Tuesday confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) asked Yellen about the use of cryptocurrency by terrorists and other criminals. "Cryptocurrencies are a particular concern," Yellen responded. "I think many are used -- at least in a transactions sense -- mainly for illicit financing." She said she wanted to "examine ways in which we can curtail their use and make sure that [money laundering] doesn't occur through those channels."
UPDATE: Yellen's written remarks the next day also suggest America "consider the benefits of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, and the potential they have to improve the efficiency of the financial system."

But they still also add that "At the same time, we know they can be used to finance terrorism, facilitate money laundering, and support malign activities that threaten U.S. national security interests and the integrity of the U.S. and international financial systems."

Massive blackouts and smog have hit cities across Iran. It's a toxic mix as the country, already under economic duress and suffocating U.S. sanctions, simultaneously battles the region's worst coronavirus outbreak. Blackouts are not new in Iran, where an aging and subsidized electricity sector is plagued by alleged mismanagement. But this time, government officials say that bitcoin mining at cryptocurrency farms -- the energy-intensive business of using large collections of computers to verify digital coin transactions -- is partly to blame. From a report: Iran's state-owned electricity firm Tavanir announced Wednesday that it had shut down a large Chinese-Iranian-run cybercurrency center in the southeastern province of Kerman because of its heavy energy consumption. The company reportedly was licensed to operate under a process the government had put in place to regulate the industry. Alongside pointing a finger at legal operations, Iranian officials have specifically singled out illegal cryptocurrency miners as a strain on the electricity grid spurring outages, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi, a spokesperson for the electricity industry at Iran's energy ministry, told the IRNA state-run news agency. On Wednesday, Ali Vaezi, a spokesperson for Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said the government would be investigating cases of unlicensed cryptocurrency farms. But Iranians in the bitcoin industry reject the government's accusations, saying the industry is being blamed for a broader problem. "The miners have nothing to do with the blackouts," Ziya Sadr, a cryptocurrency researcher in Tehran, told The Washington Post. "Mining is a very small percentage of the overall electricity capacity in Iran."

Later this year, cryptocurrency exchange company Gemini is planning to launch a credit card that earns bitcoin rewards based on your purchases. It's based on the work done by Blockrize, a fintech startup which Gemini has acquired for an undisclosed sum. TechCrunch reports: The credit card will work like any other credit card and will be available in the U.S. Customers will earn up to 3% in bitcoin rewards (again, up to 3%). You'll be able to earn other crypto assets as well. Those rewards will be deposited on your Gemini account. This isn't the first time a company is announcing a credit card with bitcoin rewards. BlockFi already announced its own card back in December. Both companies have yet to launch their cards.

As a comparison, BlockFi promises 1.5% rewards on fiat purchases. There's a $200 annual fee, but you get $250 back if you spend at least $3,000 with the card in the first three months. [...] Gemini customers can sign up to the waitlist today. Blockrize has been working on a credit card for some time. While it is now part of Gemini, people who previously signed up to Blockrize's waitlist are still on the waitlist.

After Twitter banned President Trump's account last week, the site and its executives, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, were largely silent in justifying their decision. That changed last night when Dorsey, in a series of tweets, explained that he felt banning Trump's account was the right move for the social network. The Verge reports: "Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all," he wrote. Dorsey blamed Twitter's failure "to promote healthy conversation," acknowledged that Twitter needs to "look critically at inconsistencies of our policy and enforcement," and said that social platforms needed more transparency around moderation. Then, Dorsey plugged an effort to build a decentralized standard for social media he began in 2019 when he sought to hire five engineers to work on it. That's how, eight tweets into a thread on why his company banned Donald Trump, the CEO of Twitter managed to change the subject to his passion for bitcoin.

Banning the RealDonaldTrump Twitter account had "real and significant ramifications," Dorsey wrote. Dorsey said that the widespread suspension of the president by many platforms challenged the notion that if people didn't like Twitter's rules, they could simply go somewhere else. And though the president can issue a press release or call a press conference whenever he wishes -- or simply go on television -- Dorsey expressed concern that the enforcement actions might "erode a free and open global internet."

And that was when bitcoin came up. Dorsey is also CEO of Square, an internet payment company, that bought $50 million of bitcoin as part of a bet on cryptocurrency. Square has accepted bitcoin since 2014. According to Dorsey, bitcoin provides a model for a decentralized model for social media. Dorsey did not elaborate on how such a network might address Twitter's failures in moderation, creating healthy conversations, or provide for more consistent policy enforcment. "It's important that we acknowledge this is a time of great uncertainty and struggle for so many around the world," Dorsey wrote on Twitter. "Our goal in this moment is to disarm as much as we can, and ensure we are all building towards a greater common understanding, and a more peaceful existence on earth. I believe the internet and global public conversation is our best and most relevant method of achieving this."