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In this episode of Hot Topics on Edge of NFT, Richard Carthone, Josh Krieger, and January Jones dive deep into Tesla’s $760 million Bitcoin move, speculation around its future, and the FBI’s groundbreaking Operation Token Mirrors, which unveiled over $25 million in fraudulent crypto transactions. The hosts also discuss the ongoing saga of James Howells and his quest to recover $500 million in Bitcoin from a landfill. Finally, the episode previews the WoW Summit in Bangkok, highlighting key speakers and the event’s focus on Web3, AI, fintech, and mass adoption technologies.
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Key Topics Covered:
- Tesla's Bitcoin Transfer: Tesla shifts $760 million worth of Bitcoin to new wallets, sparking speculation of potential sell-offs or corporate strategy shifts.
- FBI's Crypto Sting: Operation Token Mirrors leads to $25 million in crypto fraud uncovered, marking a new milestone in market regulation and the use of blockchain to track fraudulent activities.
- James Howells' Bitcoin Quest: The fascinating tale of a man suing his local council to dig up a landfill in search of his lost $500 million Bitcoin fortune.
- WOW Summit in Bangkok: Upcoming major Web3 and AI event with leaders from Serotonin, Trust Wallet, and Animoca Brands sharing insights on the latest digital innovation trends.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let us know in the comments on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@edgeofnft/
Episode Highlights:
- Josh Krieger on Tesla’s Bitcoin Move: "Tesla is positioning itself strategically with its Bitcoin holdings, balancing liquidity with long-term investments."
- Richard Carthone on the FBI Sting: "This sting operation is a huge step forward in cleaning up the crypto space and boosting investor confidence."
- January Jones on James Howells' Saga: "It’s like a modern-day treasure hunt with a tech twist—this saga just keeps evolving."
- Josh Krieger on WoW Summit: "This year’s event in Bangkok is set to bring together some of the most innovative minds in Web3 and AI."
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Transcript
Welcome to Hot Topics on the Edge of NFT. I'm Richard Carthon. I'm here with my co-host Josh Krieger and January Jones. Join us as we delve into the latest news shaping the landscape of Web3, blockchain, and digital assets.
Coming up, Tesla's entire 760 million Bitcoin stash moves, the FBI creation of fake cryptocurrency, and a 500 million Bitcoin burial in a landfall, plus, WoW Summit, Bangkok.
It's another production of Edge of Company, a rapidly growing Media ecosystem empowering the pioneers of Web3 tech and culture.
Let's dive right in.
Today for our first topic, Tesla. Tesla has moved its entire Bitcoin holdings worth approximately 760 million to new wallet addresses. This transfer has sparked speculation about whether Elon Musk's company intends to sell its Bitcoin again as it did in 2022 when it sold 75 percent of its holdings.
Apparently Tesla is the fourth largest holder of Bitcoin in the world. What do you guys think this move signals?
I think Tesla is looking to take some profit. The fact that they're putting this into multiple wallets, instead of just one, makes me believe that they're still have a long term vision of having some holdings of Bitcoin, but also with just looking where the market is potentially headed towards the end of the year, which people are projecting somewhere between 50 and 90, 000, I think based on.
Tesla's cost basis, they still should be able to take profit, regardless of where it ends out. And so I think they're probably just trying to offset some of that for their books. but I don't see this as, them potentially about to take a larger position. but I do think they're going to try to, take some profit as we wrap up the year.
But some people are seeing this as potential market manipulation play. And I just, I don't see it that way.
Yeah. I think, I think, Okay. Everyone has the right to, to, to buy and sell, you know, projects, in, in a responsible way, they have a lot of stakeholders and, you know, looking at their stock price, they're down as of today, 28.
67% this year, 35% over the last year. So if there's an opportunity for them to sort of increase. Liquidity and reinvest that money into R& D or some of the other pioneering projects. I don't see why they wouldn't do that
Yeah, I think like you said ultimately they're a corporation and when you talk about the numbers that you just did being down that Much on the year just year to date and then over the last year, you have to find a way to finish a year stronger, have a strong Q4 and a great way to do that is to get some liquidity and what a great place to potentially do that then from your Bitcoin reserves, which at this point is up on the year.
So, I think it's more of a corporate decision of, of balancing out their books more than, than anything. So I think that was a good point, Josh.
Yeah, I mean, we're, we're in October. And, there's, definitely, this sort of triumvirate of, of thoughts here on when the market's going to move. Is it going to move in November, December, January?
Elon, has certain alliances and preferences there as we know. So, maybe he's anticipating some positive news that would, lead him to having some additional liquidity. You know, I, I think it's just getting ready. So that's my thought.
Well, moving on to our next story, the FBI conducted a sting operation called Operation Token Mirrors.
They created a fake crypto company and a token to uncover fraud. Individuals and entities were charged for manipulating digital asset prices through practices like wash trading. Over 25 million in cryptocurrency was seized and multiple trading bots were disabled. According to the U. S. Justice Department, this marks the first-ever criminal case targeting cryptocurrency market manipulation at this scale.
In the long run, this is actually a good thing for investor confidence in the cryptocurrency market.
Yeah, I think so. I mean, we gotta clean up this industry and, there's plenty of nefarious folks and every emerging tech industry and cryptocurrency certainly has had its share of those characters. And, you know, I think this is a good thing.
I'm all for sort of, you know, looking around the different corners and, and sort of, figuring out who's not, you know, behaving themselves. This happens in every industry. We, we've seen exposes on, sustainable fishing and, you know, There we we know about market manipulation and sort of um bad actors and imports and exports So i'm happy to see you know proactive action like this
Yeah, I think it's interesting that the FBI when they did this thing.
They they got 18 people, right? you would think that even more people would be involved when you have like a 25 million-dollar type of thing market manipulation. But one of the keywords that got brought up there is bots. There's a lot of botting that is happening in this space, that is helping less people be able to move money at a larger scale.
And I think technology is going to continue to be involved, that's going to help both the FBI identify what's happening and then be able to trace it back again, going back to one of the core things about cryptocurrency being built on top of blockchain is that you have a digital ledger to be able to go and follow everything.
And so. The FBI should be building confidence in. As they go after more nefarious things that they can follow on the blockchain, they can go and identify and get things done even faster. So I think this is a first step in helping to clean up, nefarious acts that happen very often in crypto. although there is a net positive, a lot of good that's happening, there's still a lot of scams and a lot of bad that's happening.
And I think this is a good first step into helping to try to clean this up.
Yeah, I would note that there are multiple companies involved in this. and, if people are concerned, they should look it up. The FBI has created a, a web form to contact them if you were involved in any of those companies, because obviously they went after the companies and the individuals, but it's the consumers that lost out.
Now we go to the ongoing Bitcoin saga of James Howells. A British man who accidentally threw away a hard drive containing 8, 000 bitcoins back in 2013, is now suing his local council for 200 million pounds in an attempt to get their permission to try and dig up his hard drive in the local landfill.
The last bitcoins are now worth around 500 million. Despite offering the council a share of the recovered funds, his requests have been denied. Josh, I know this is a thread you've been covering for a while. What's your take on it?
So, yeah, this is such a fascinating story that we've been covering on edge of NFT, for quite a while.
I think we originally talked about this several years ago. And I would just say, this guy's anxiety level must be, off the charts at this point as he sees his, his Bitcoin stash growing, more and more. ultimately, I'm not sure where this will pan out. I'm, I'm not a lawyer. We'll have to ask, Josh, his opinion on this one next time he comes on the show, the other Josh.
But certainly, I, I hope this guy. Finds his Bitcoin, you know, I mean, I'm rooting for him.
Yeah. So, shout out to Josh Lawler. He definitely can offer some legal on this on, on the lawsuit. I mean, the fact that this guy's trying to sue his counsel for 200 mil in hopes that they would like help him go get his 500.
I think it's pretty insane, especially when it's his own fault that he lost it at a landfill. although, like, I just don't see the legal precedent for him to be able to bring that to court and actually win. But, all the same, like, I would be trying to go after, like, professional miners, or people that, like, literally go and dig and find stuff, or even just put a bounty out there of, like, hey, Whoever helps me find this, I will give you X amount of whatever the thing is.
I just think that you know, trying to go the legal route, I don't think he's going to yield and get a proper response, but I think if he changes his marketing tactic a little bit more and, hyper-incentivizes people who literally do this all day, every day for a living, he, he might have a better chance of, of going and getting that Bitcoin.
He's got to get permission though, from, you know, the council to get in there first. So. To your point, maybe there's some sort of creative thing where he could start, assistance petition and, and, and, and give the money to everyone in his community, partially. I mean, you know, for, for, most folks that have had sort of challenges with, with funding, most cities, governments would, would certainly appreciate, you know, a hundred or 200 million extra, think about what that can do for, You know, the local basketball court or, the senior citizens living in town or, or, you know, a new park, who knows what they can build with this money.
So I would, to your point, I think there's a, probably an opportunity to, to create some kind of blockchain project here. And incentivize the whole community to support him.
Yeah. Especially if he has the means, of being able to get into that hard drive. Cause it's one thing to like find the hard drive, but like, does he still have his keys?
Like, can he actually like guarantee, like, if I just get it, I can get in. And if that's the case, then I feel like he needs to be doing way more to be able to go find that hard drive. If it's like, Oh, I need to find this. And then I got to figure out the other stuff a little, a little harder. But like, if he definitely has like an access key to get back in.
He's got to go way harder to go get that, that hard drive.
Well, it seems like he does because, you know, litigation isn't so common in the UK as it is here. They don't sue everybody all the time and it's a pretty big move, to sue your entire town. but they're citing environmental concerns. So, must be something nasty in that landfill that they don't want dug up.
but one thing he did say he wanted to use was he wanted to use robot dogs. to help dig up the landfill. So, I mean, it's a movie, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah. I, yeah, maybe that's his end game here. I don't know. Is that there's a documentary in this or something? He's gonna, he wants to get something out of this story.
And he's certainly, not gonna stop trying. So, the saga continues. It does.
And it just feeds that you, everywhere you go, you hear people with their lost Bitcoin stories, right? Oh, I had it and then I lost it. And people have like daily regret while they watch the prices go up and down from stuff that happened eight, 10 years ago, and they didn't have 500 million, in crypto.
So buyer beware, once again.
Indeed. Well, let's shift gears and talk about the WOW Summit coming up in Bangkok on November 11th and 12th. Edge of NFT is very proud to be a media partner this time around and will be there in attendance. This is set to be a major event in Web 3, kicking off a whole week of, incredible side events and, of course, DevCon.
Which is one of the major global gatherings around sort of the Ethereum community.
Yeah, WoW Summit is going to be held at the UOB Live in the vibrant EM district in Bangkok, which is a world-class entertainment venue. And this year's WoW Summit is not just a Web3 event. It's going to cover AI, mobility, fintech, and more.
And it's going to showcase true mass-adoption technologies and other future digital innovations.
The summit will feature a lineup of industry leaders like Amanda Cassatt from Serotonin, Yihuan Chen from Trust Wallet, Yat Su from Animoca Brands, where they will be sharing insights on the latest trends in Web3 technology.
It's a great chance for attendees to learn about emerging projects and connect with like-minded individuals.
If you're planning to attend, make sure to connect with us. We'd love to meet our listeners in person. For more information, go to bangkok2024. wowsummit. net.
And that's a wrap. We've covered Tesla's Bitcoin move, the FBI crypto sting operation, the ongoing drama to recover 500 million Bitcoin from the buried in a landfill, and of course the WoW Summit.
Feel free to share your thoughts and these developments in the comments or in social media. Your voice shapes this space.
Thanks for tuning in to the Edge of NFT Hub Topics today. I'm Josh here with Richard and January signing off. Stay secure, stay curious, and catch you on the flip side.
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