The Daily: HBO doc suggests Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto, VanEck enters the crypto VC space and more
Tuesday night’s HBO documentary “Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery” suggested early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.Global asset manager VanEck has launched a new venture capital unit, VanEck Ventures, led by two former Circle Ventures leaders, Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez.The U.S. government said Bitfinex might be the sole victim of its 2016 hack involving Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, aka “Razzlekhan,” according to a recent court filing.The following article is ad
Happy Wednesday! In today's Daily, HBO's documentary "Money Electric: The Bitcoin BTC -1.50% Mystery" suggests Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto, VanEck enters the crypto VC space, the U.S. govt. says Bitfinex could be the sole victim in its 2016 hack and more.
Meanwhile, the former FTX executive Ryan Salame again asks to push back his prison time to get medical treatment following a dog attack over the summer.
Let's get started.
HBO documentary suggests Peter Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto
Tuesday night's HBO documentary "Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery" suggested early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd is its creator, Satoshi Nakamoto .
- Todd denied the claim immediately after the film aired, posting "I'm not Satoshi" on X.
- The nearly two-hour documentary, billed as a "globe-trotting investigation" out to "solve one of the internet's greatest mysteries" interviewed a series of people involved in Bitcoin and examined various clues before finally zeroing in on Todd.
- Filmmaker Cullen Hoback's case focused on a 2010 BitcoinTalk forum reply where he claimed Todd accidentally finished Satoshi's post. Both accounts went silent in the days that followed, and Todd later implemented the replace-by-fee feature discussed in the thread.
- Among the supposed supporting evidence, Hoback also cited Todd using a pseudonym "John Dillon" to push replace-by-fee, the British/Canadian spellings used by both Satoshi and Todd and a weekend-heavy posting schedule that aligned with Todd's student timetable at the time.
- Further, Hoback said Todd once discussed "sacrificing" bitcoins and argued this was about destroying Satoshi's coins, estimated to be as much as 1.1 million BTC — worth roughly $68 billion on paper.
- Another former Bitcoin developer, Gregory Maxwell, pointed out a flaw in the documentary's argument linking Todd to Satoshi .
- "At the time Peter Todd's account was named 'retep' and didn't have any immediately obvious connection to his identity. If there had been a slipup he could have just abandoned the account and certainly not later had it renamed to his legal name!" he explained.
- Todd responded to Maxwell, agreeing that Hoback didn't thoroughly check his theories with experts like Adam Back or himself, accusing the filmmaker of prioritizing profit over accuracy.
- The documentary's big reveal sparked significant debate and skepticism, with many community members taking to X to criticize and debunk the film's conclusions as they had done in the past regarding similar supposed unveilings.
- Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator seemingly remains a mystery for now, with many advocates arguing it should stay that way.
VanEck enters crypto VC space, seeks $30 million for first fund
Global asset manager VanEck, with more than $118 billion in AUM, has launched a new venture capital unit, VanEck Ventures , led by two former Circle Ventures leaders, Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez.
- The firm is raising $30 million for its first fund to invest in early-stage startups at the intersection of fintech, crypto and AI.
- The fund aims to make 25 to 35 investments, focusing on stablecoin and tokenization platforms with check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.
- VanEck has already made four investments through the new fund and continues to raise capital, with the fund expected to close later this quarter.
- VanEck was an early mover in the crypto space, among the first to file for a spot bitcoin ETF in 2018 and a spot ether ETF in 2021.
US government says Bitfinex could be the sole victim of 2016 hack
The U.S. government said Bitfinex might be the sole victim of its 2016 hack involving Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, aka "Razzlekhan," according to a recent court filing.
- After the hack, parent company iFinex said customers were able to sell Bitfinex-issued tokens called BFX on the market or back to the platform for cash or iFinex stock, among other options.
- "All customers holding BFX tokens chose to exercise one of those options, and as of April 3, 2017, all BFX tokens were fully redeemed," the filing said.
- However, "out of an abundance of caution," the government asked the court to allow Bitfinex account holders a chance to submit claims ahead of sentencing.
- Lichtenstein and Morgan pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy connected to the 119,754 BTC hack ($72 million at the time) in August 2023, with their sentencing scheduled for next month.
Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison agrees to hand over bulk of her remaining assets
Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX-connected trading firm Alameda Research, has agreed to turn over "substantially all" of her remaining assets to debtors to settle a lawsuit filed by the FTX estate, except for those already forfeited to the government or used to pay legal fees.
- The settlement also includes Ellison agreeing to "cooperate extensively" with the estate's ongoing and prospective investigations.
- FTX filed for bankruptcy in late 2022, and the debtors sued Sam Bankman-Fried, Ellison and several other former executives in the hope of recovering as many assets as possible.
- The lawsuit sought to recover significant funds, including $22.5 million in bonuses and $6.3 million in payments transferred to Ellison in 2021 and 2022.
- "Following the settlement, Ellison will have no remaining assets other than certain physical personal property," FTX said in the filing.
Is a bitcoin 'melt-up' on the cards post-US election?
Matt Hougan, CIO at crypto asset manager Bitwise, said that anything but a Democratic sweep in the U.S. elections, further Fed rate cuts and no major crypto hacks or lawsuit surprises could drive a bitcoin "melt-up" to new all-time highs of more than $80,000 this quarter.
- Analysts at research and brokerage firm Bernstein echoed that bitcoin could hit $80,000 to $90,000 if pro-crypto Donald Trump wins, whereas a victory for Kamala Harris might push bitcoin back to test the $40,000 range with less clarity on the regulatory environment.
- Trump currently leads Harris by over 7% on the decentralized predictions platform Polymarket, while national polling averages remain within the 3% "too close to call" margin of error in Harris' favor, Bernstein noted.
In the next 24 hours
- The latest U.S. CPI inflation data are released at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday. Est. MoM 0.1%; Core 0.2%. Est. YoY 2.3%; Core 3.2%. U.S. jobless claims figures are due at the same time.
- U.S. FOMC member John Williams will speak at 11 a.m.
- Bitcoin Amsterdam concludes in the Netherlands. Crypto Fest, Zebu Live and the World Blockchain Summit all get underway.
Never miss a beat with The Block's daily digest of the most influential events happening across the digital asset ecosystem.
Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.
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