Two men, one from Miami and one from Los Angeles, stole and laundered over 3,100 bitcoins at a $230 million dollar value from a man in Washington DC.
The FBI arrested 20-year-old Malone Lam in Miami and 21-year-old Jeandiel Serrano in Los Angeles on the 18th of September, 2024.
According to Bitdefender, “the heist began on August 19, 2024, when the men allegedly contacted their intended victim by posing as Google Support and using a spoofed telephone number. Having tricked the victim into sharing their screen, the hackers were allegedly able to steal the investor’s private keys The victim was supposedly tricked into resetting the 2FA used to protect their cryptocurrency wallet, and funds were sent into a wallet under the control of the attackers.”
After these two men were able to successfully access the $230 million dollars in crypto they didn’t waste any time before starting to spend the money. Doing so by spending up to 500 thousand dollars at various clubs per night, purchasing luxury cars, watches, and jewelry, purchasing designer handbags for others, and renting mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
What does the world of crypto have to offer? What do iSchooler’s think about crypto?
What is cryptocurrency and how does it work?
Cryptocurrency or “Crypto” is a digital currency that utilizes cryptographic techniques for secure transactions and is available only via the internet. Cryptocurrency operates on a blockchain, a blockchain is what binds the crypto world together using a very advanced database controlled by computers. Crypto is a digital form of payment that does not rely on a bank to send and receive money, rather it is a transaction between two “wallet” holders. A “wallet” is what you use to store cryptocurrency almost like a bank account except you are able to hold every type of currency in the “wallet.”
There are over 11,000 crypto coins and counting that you are able to store in a “wallet.” Cryptocurrency is created through a process called “mining”; this is when computers are used to solve very complex mathematical problems which lead to the coins being generated. Crypto mining is not a common way for users to obtain and use cryptocurrency but it can be a lucrative way to make money.
For most users wanting to purchase crypto they do so by purchasing from a crypto broker. A company or individual who holds onto and sells crypto currency and charges percentage fees for the purchase.
Different types of cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin (valued at $62,948.36 as of 10/11/2024)
Created in 2009, and is currently the most popular cryptocurrency.
Ethereum (valued at $2,449.95 as of 10/11/2024)
Created in 2015, the second most popular cryptocurrency following Bitcoin.
Dogecoin (valued at $0.11 as of 10/11/2024)
Created in 2013, inspired by a “meme” and gained popularity only a few years ago after mentions from many celebrities including a very popular figure in the crypto community Elon Musk
Tether (USDT) (valued at $1 as of 10/11/2024)
Created in 2014 tether was made to match the US dollar 1:1 at all times, allowing users to hold their money in cryptocurrency safely without risking the price of the crypto fluctuating.
Good Uses for Crypto Currency
In the last 5 years crypto has become very mainstream and a large portion of the world population has heard of or even used crypto currency for one thing or another. Cryptocurrency has many effective uses to it that make it a very strong currency and it is gaining popularity very fast.
Ms. Turso said, “One use for cryptocurrency is to send money across borders very efficiently, without having to pay for wire transfer fees.” This can be very useful for people who have family that live in other countries and need financial help.
Another reason that people use cryptocurrency is because it keeps transactions private.
And if doing so at the right time investing in cryptocurrency can be extremely profitable, and has turned into some people’s jobs, very similar to being a stockbroker.
Crypto has also been something that is becoming more mainstream in retail, some major companies now allow you to pay for items just like using a credit or debit card online. In the future, if cryptocurrency keeps growing at the same pace that it is I see most companies introducing it as a use of payment.
Bad Uses for Crypto Currency
When students at the iSchool were interviewed about cryptocurrency, Jasper Caruso, a junior, said that when he thinks about crypto “the first thing that I think about is scams.”
And since cryptocurrency has become very popular in the last decade or so many people have used it with ill intent. And since cryptocurrency is easily made anonymous it has led to criminals using it for countless crimes the most popular being ransom fees, online scams, money laundering, and bribery or embezzlement in all industries of work.
Crypto is also used for things like tax evasion which is very common for online casinos and other degenerate websites to use to get out of paying large amounts of taxed dollars. They do this by operating from a country where there are not many laws surrounding cryptocurrency. As most people lose when gambling this becomes very profitable for the owners of the “crypto casino”.
When cryptocurrency first became popular there were not many laws surrounding the crypto world, this led to influencers with large amounts of followers promoting their own crypto coins or NTfs (Non-fungible tokens).
This led to their fans purchasing the tokens and the value being highly inflated. What these influencers then did was a “pump and dump” scam used most famously by Jordan Belfort, The infamous Wolf of Wall Street.
A pump and dump is when a stock or crypto token is artificially inflated by a person or group of people to attract attention and have the targeted group buy shares, and then the main buyer(s) dump all of his or her shares causing the price of the stock to plummet and the creator making a ton of money while the investors lose everything.
How does cryptocurrency investment work? What are the upsides and downsides?
Investing in cryptocurrency and how much your money increases and decreases is purely based on supply and demand. There are currently 19,843,425 (one trillion two hundred forty-six billion in USD value) bitcoin in circulation yet there are only 900 new bitcoin(s) created each day.
Alpha Diallo, a senior at the iSchool, said, “he does not know a lot about crypto but he heard that it can make people a lot of money.”
This is a common misconception about crypto that it can get you rich quick with no risk. When putting money into crypto currencies it can fluctuate extremely quickly depending on the demand.
The charts below show just how quickly your money can deplete or inflate. The first chart shows in November of 2021, bitcoin was at the highest point that we had seen when it first started to become extremely relevant at $64,000 dollars, but just a year later (shown in the second chart) crypto dropped to only $16,000 dollars. Many people had said that the hype was over and that at some point it would be worthless. But a little over a year later (shown in the third chart) crypto hit its all-time high in March of 2024, $73,000. This shows just how quickly someone could make or lose a large amount of money.
Langston Byrd, another senior at the iSchool, said that a personal experience he had was “his uncle lost a lot of money through cryptocurrency.” He said his uncle thought it was a way to “get rich quick.” This shows that the crypto world should still remain uncharted territory for most, unless you put time into your research.
