Israeli Court Orders Seizure Of 150 Banned Crypto Wallets

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Because to a ruling reached by a court in Israel, more than 150 bitcoin wallets that have been deemed to have potential links to the funding of terrorist groups will likely have their entire balances wiped out as a consequence of this verdict.

It has been reported that the Magistrate Court in Tel Aviv has handed down a judgement that grants the Israeli government permission to confiscate all of the cryptocurrency that is stored in the more than 150 digital wallets that it has banned due to the suspicion that they are aiding terrorist organizations. The reasoning behind the ban is that the government believes that these wallets are providing support to terrorist organizations.

On the 18th of December, local Israeli media reported that Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz stated that the court’s order from the 15th of December has already enabled police to take an additional $33,500 from digital wallets that are related to the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas. This information was reported by the Israeli Defense Minister.

Prior to the verdict of the court, the only digital assets that the Israeli police were legally entitled to gather were those that had direct linkages to terrorist operations. They did not have the authority to confiscate any more cash that could have been included in the same wallets.

The authorities seized hold of the wallets in December of 2021 and withdrew $750,000 from each of them at that time.

Gantz issued an order on July 9, 2021, that permitted security personnel to seize bitcoin accounts that were suspected of having ties to the militant wing of the Hamas group. Gantz’s order authorized the seizure of cryptocurrency accounts.

In addition, Israeli detectives were successful in seizing 30 bitcoin wallets and 12 exchange accounts tied to Hamas in the month of February.

After the seizure, the true market worth of the cryptocurrency assets that were stolen was not disclosed to the public.

It has been shown that the use of cryptocurrencies in the process of funding terrorist groups is quite little. [C]ryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum play a very small role.

Early in 2022, the business that specializes in blockchain analytics known as Chainalysis came to the realization that just a minuscule portion of crypto currency was being used for illicit activities.

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Robinhood in ‘Much Better Position’ Than Coinbase Long Term Amid Crypto Wallet Plans: Mizuho Analyst

Mizuho analyst Dan Dolev believes financial services firm Robinhood now has an edge over cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase amid plans to add crypto wallets to its stock trading app.

Earlier this week Robinhood announced it will start testing crypto wallets in October.

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In a CNBC interview, Dolev says Robinhood is in a “much better position” in the digital-only bank [neobank] race than Coinbase.

He cites such Robinhood’s features such as as fee-free trading and high user engagement levels to back up his outlook.

“I think Robinhood is much better positioned. And the key thing about Robinhood, and that’s what people don’t fully understand, is the engagement on the app is way bigger than the engagement of any other app that we’ve seen. Some people use it multiple times a day. Some people use it multiple times an hour.

It’s the ultimate super app, and they’re giving away everything that Coinbase gives for a fee, they give it away for free. And I think that’s why Robinhood is in a much better position long-term to become one of the leading next-gen neobanks versus Coinbase.”

Dolev says another advantage that Robinhood has over Coinbase is its relatively diversified range of offerings.

“The key here is diversification. The more diversified you are, the better off you are. So if you take Coinbase, it’s all about crypto. They will live or suffer depending on where crypto is.

If you think about Robinhood, you’ve got crypto, you’ve got equities, and you’ve got the banking side, which is kind of like the future.

The key here is diversification and the ability to survive if one area of the market does better or worse in any given time.”



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Google To Allow Crypto Exchange & Wallet Advertisements in August

Google Inc is expanding the scope and content of its cryptocurrency-related advertisement policy.

The corporation published an updated policy statement on Wednesdays, June 2, starting from August 3; advertisers providing crypto exchanges and wallets targeting the US may advertise such cryptocurrency-related services and products when certified by Google and meet the requirements stated below.

To qualify crypto exchanges and wallets need to be duly registered with the FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) as a money services business and registered with at least one state as a money transmitter. Alternatively, they can be a state or federally chartered bank entity.

Google also stated that advertisers must meet all relevant legal requirements and state, local, and federal laws. They must also ensure that their landing pages and advertisements comply with all Google ads policies.

However, Google’s new ad policy will not allow advertisements for DeFi trading protocols, initial coin offerings, or ads promoting the trade, sales or purchase of crypto-related products. The internet giant further said that ads that compare or aggregate providers of cryptocurrencies and related products are not allowed.

The new policy also implements a series of prohibition of advertisements, including “ICO pre-sales or public offerings, cryptocurrency loans, initial DEX offerings, token liquidity pools, celebrity cryptocurrency endorsements, unhosted wallets, unregulated Dapps, cryptocurrency trading signals, cryptocurrency investment advice, aggregators or affiliate sites containing related content or broker reviews.”

It is important to note that the new cryptocurrency ads policy will also apply worldwide to all accounts that advertise crypto financial products.

Google Reversed Crypto Ban

In March 2018, Google updated its financial services policy concerning a complete ban of crypto-related advertisements for its search engine.  Facebook also made such a move later by initiating a similar policy shift during that year. However, Google was determined to reverse the ban in September 2018 partially and reopened its advertising doors to regulated cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan and the United States.

While the ban remained primarily in place, cryptocurrency-related businesses outside Japan and the US were still unable to use Google ads.

With the crypto industry showing no signs of slowing down, Google has finally reviewed its policy and eventually opens doors for all crypto advertisers worldwide.

Although the ban adversely affected crypto marketers worldwide, Google’s move is helpful to stop criminals from reaching online consumers with fraudulent and misleading pop-up ads.

The introduction of the new policy hints that Google now has unique capabilities to address crypto-related ad scams.  

Image source: Shutterstock

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Ledger Live Integrates with Polkadot (DOT) to Provide Self-Custody Staking

The popular hardware wallet provider, Ledger, just added Polkadot to its wide variety of supported tokens. Ledger will allow users to directly stake DOT coins on the website, thus raising to five the total number of staking options.

Polkadot Integration with Ledger

Polkadot (DOT) has grown to become one of the most significant blockchain projects in the world. This year alone, the Polkadot price has jumped by more than 360%, bringing its total market cap to more than $34.17 billion.

Founded in 2014, Ledger is a digital asset wallet provider that prides itself as a global leader in security and infrastructure solutions to safeguard critical cryptocurrencies. It revealed plans to bring a new blockchain project to the Ledger community, Polkadot, with its cryptocurrency (DOT) in a press release. 

Used in conjunction with Polkadot-JS applications, Ledger Nano S and Nano X devices were previously supported. Over 1.5 million units have been sold by Ledger’s famous Nano S and Nano X wallets. Ledger Live is the cryptocurrency management all-in-one application of Ledger. Now you can use your Ledger hardware to log transactions from your Ledger Live app to manage your accounts and connect with your network, like staking DOT


The statement reads that Polkadot will assist the wallet provider in its software application and connect it to Ledger Live – a smartphone app running alongside the Ledger hardware wallet. In addition to storing crypto assets, Ledger Live allows users to keep track of and maintain holdings even when the wallet is not nearby.

Polkadot’s Ledger Live integration means that users can gain the security advantages of keeping their secret key safe on a Ledger hardware system while still managing their accounts and doing staking activities in a single, convenient app. It could be particularly advantageous for newer DOT holders seeking a more straightforward staking guide without sacrificing private keys ownership and control.

DOT Price and Staking Stats

Polkadot digital native asset – DOT – has officially become the fifth coin that Ledger Live users can deploy for staking.

Of late, DOT is among the best cryptocurrency price performers.

The asset entered the new year at approx. $8, but in the following months, it took full advantage of the bullish developments. Despite the minor retrace during last week’s market crash, DOT is still 350 percent higher than YTD, which currently exceeds $36.

According to stakingrewards.com, the token is also the second-most used coin for staking. With over $24 billion in staking funds, DOT is just $4 billion behind Cardano (ADA). As of this writing, approximately 64% of all DOT in circulation is at stake.


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Avoid hosted crypto wallets ‘at all costs,’ warns Elon Musk

Freewallet, a hosted crypto wallet service known for offering standalone storage services for cryptocurrencies has seen its marketing attempt rebuffed by Elon Musk.

Responding to Freewallet’s self-promotional message, Musk retorted:

Hosted crypto wallet platforms like Freewallet are often targets for criticism over the storage of their user’s private keys.

This policy flies in the face of the “not your keys, not your coins” ethos propounded by cryptocurrency purists.

By storing private keys on third-party platforms, crypto owners run the risk of rogue actors gaining access to this sensitive bit of information and compromising their wallets in the process.

Freewallet for its part has responded to the negative views espoused by the wallet’s critics. According to the company, being a hosted wallet enables the provision of “bank-level” services in terms of security and customer support:

“The accusations relating to this fact are never followed by a support ticket. People saying ‘stay away from Freewallet’ express prejudice towards custodial wallets because they believe that a ‘true’ blockchain wallet is supposed to leave the management of private keys to the user (no). However, there are other services (like exchanges) that have access to user private keys.”

Despite the clamor for utilizing self-hosted crypto storage, investors still appear to prefer trusting their coins to third-party service providers. According to a previous Cointelegraph report, 92% of institutional investors keep their cryptocurrencies on exchanges.

While crypto exchange hacks are not as prevalent as they once were, some platforms do still fall victim to cybercriminals. In 2020, suspected North Korean hackers stole about $285 million from KuCoin.

KuCoin did reportedly recover 84% of the stolen funds via a collaborative effort with other exchanges and law enforcement agencies. The platform also utilized its insurance fund to cover the remaining losses from the incident.

Meanwhile, self-hosted wallets are becoming the subject of government attention, especially in the United States. In late 2020, the U.S. Treasury proposed Know Your Customer rules for withdrawals from exchanges to unhosted wallets.