Today in Crypto: Argentina Hunts Crypto Miners
Chartered trust bank Protego Trust Bank has added a new CEO in Ron Totaro, who has decades of experience building and leading FinTech, banking, payments and blockchain companies, a press release said on Monday.
Totaro was most recently CEO of Tassat Group, where he worked on strengthening the blockchain-based, real-time payment solutions that allowed banks to tokenize US dollar deposits.
“Ron brings a solid understanding of digital assets and blockchain technology, as well as strong relationships with banking and private equity leaders,” said Greg Gilman, founder and CEO of Protego Holdings Corp.
Meanwhile, crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime will return all outside capital to investors as it transitions to become part of a family office, Seeking Alpha reported Monday.
LedgerPrime was part of Ledger Holdings, which was acquired by FTX last year. LedgerPrime plans to move outside of FTX, instead becoming a subsidiary of Alameda Research, a family office — so it won’t be able to keep its status as a fund, according to CEO Shiliang Tang.
In other news, Argentina’s tax collection agency, AFIP, has conducted raids looking for clandestine crypto miners, Coindesk wrote on Monday, citing the agency itself.
AFIP conducted a raid last Tuesday in San Juan, and found an agricultural producer with crypto mining equipment in a fruit cooling area. And it said last week it raided a cryptominer from Buenos Aires operating on a property registered for other purposes, where it found hundreds of rigs and thousands of graphics cards.
Most miners in Argentina mine secretly to avoid paying taxes while taking advantage of lower residential electricity prices.
Meanwhile, the Blockchain Association will launch its own political action committee, as the crypto industry tries to gain a foothold in US politics, Bloomberg wrote on Monday.
The Blockchain Association is a prominent crypto trade group, and its members include stablecoin issuer Circle and exchanges such as Crypto.com and Kraken.
Finally, Helium Network’s migration to Solana may have a competitor, with Algorand executives tweeting that they want to bring it to their blockchain instead of Solana, Coindesk wrote on Monday.
Founder Silvio Micali and Chief Technology Officer John Alan Wood, in what could be interpreted as a direct shot at Solana, said Helium “needs a secure, robust and scalable chain.”
Borderless Capital, the Algorand-focused venture firm and an investor in Helium, also wanted Helium to look at other proposals before deciding where to go, calling for “more rigorous analysis and transparency.”
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