Canadian Youth Arrested in $36M Bitcoin Heist

An unnamed Canadian minor has been charged in a $36 million digital heist that authorities mentioned is the largest-ever bitcoin theft from a lone sufferer, the San Jose Mercury Information reported Thursday (Nov. 18).

The investigation was run by the U.S. FBI and Secret Service out of Santa Clara County, California, in line with the district legal professional’s workplace. The sufferer was well-known bitcoin investor Josh Jones, who was an early adopter of the cryptocurrency.

The alleged perpetrator lives in Hamilton, Ontario, a metropolis about 40 miles west of Buffalo, New York, and the Mercury Information reported that police have seized about $5.5 million in cryptocurrency as a part of the investigation.

Based on the Toronto Star, the scheme concerned a SIM swap assault, which is a cybercrime wherein criminals achieve management of a sufferer’s cell phone to allow them to thwart two-factor authorization to execute bogus transactions.

In different information, the value of bitcoin is slumping for a fifth consecutive day — the primary time since Might that the main cryptocurrency has misplaced worth for therefore lengthy a stretch, Bloomberg notes.

On the Coinbase change, bitcoin has fallen kind of steadily since peaking at a report $69,000 per coin on Nov. 10 at 9 a.m.

At 9 a.m. on Nov. 11 and 12, the value fluctuated across the $64,000 mark, rebounding as much as $64,931 on the morning of Nov. 14.

Since then, the 9 a.m. worth has trended downward, with minor blips upward — on Nov. 16, the value was $60,577 and this morning (Nov. 18), bitcoin was buying and selling on Coinbase for $59,230. As of two:30 p.m. right this moment, a single bitcoin was buying and selling on Coinbase for $58,215, down from the day’s $59,694 beginning worth.

In the meantime, the town of Williston, North Dakota, is doubling down on its dedication to cryptocurrency.

The municipality said in a information launch on Wednesday (Nov. 17) that it has partnered with Coin Cloud to offer a cryptocurrency ATM in a pre-security space of the Williston Basin Worldwide Airport.

Based on the town, the ATM will facilitate transactions utilizing bitcoin, dogecoin, shiba inu coin, cardano, ethereum and U.S. {dollars}.

“That is an formidable step in introducing and interesting the general public in direction of cryptocurrency whereas proactively taking part in a task in constructing the digital ecosystem,” Metropolis Finance Director Hercules Cummings mentioned in an announcement. “We partnered with BitPay to simply accept digital foreign money for metropolis utility payments and now with a municipal-hosted DCM [digital currency machine], we’re making a profitable highway map for the general public to embrace cryptocurrency.

“Though we’re a smaller rural neighborhood, we’re making an affect. Taking this small step could pave the best way for different authorities and business entities to observe go well with.”

Williston is in northwest North Dakota, about 25 miles from Montana and 50 miles from Canada.

Lastly, bitcoin miner PrimeBlock is in talks to merge with a particular goal acquisition firm (SPAC) referred to as 10X Capital Enterprise Acquisition, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources.

Per Bloomberg, the last word aim of the merger is to create an entity valued at about $1.5 billion. CoinDesk reported {that a} PrimeBlock spokesman declined remark when requested concerning the proposed deal.

10X Capital was based in New York Metropolis in February 2021 and trades underneath the ticker VCXAU on the Nasdaq change.