21shares to Launch Bitcoin ETP for Institutional Investors in the UK

June 8, 2021 Bitcoin.com

London wealth manager cashes out $1B profit from $600M BTC buy in November

June 7, 2021 Coin Telegraph

London wealth manager cashes out B profit from 0M BTC buy in November

Bitcoin

After profiting $1 billion in less than six months, Ruffer is open to making more Bitcoin trades in the future.

Asset manager Ruffer has profited by more than $1 billion in profit from a $600 million Bitcoin investment it made during November 2020.

Speaking to The Times, investment director at the London-based asset management firm, Hamish Baillie, revealed that Ruffer closed out its Bitcoin position for more than $1.1 billion in profit during April:

“When the price doubled we took some profits for our clients in December and early January. We actively managed the position and by the time we sold the last tranche in April the total profit was slightly more than $1.1 billion.”

Baillie claims Ruffer became one of the first fund managers to buy BTC in what was a rare short-term investment for the company. At the time of the investment, Bitcoin’s price had cleared $15,000 and was pushing up to test the then all-time highs near $20,000 that had been set in 2017.

The investment director attributed Bitcoin’s late 2020 parabolic price rally to the pandemic lockdown and stimulus payouts in the United States. He said the company sold its holdings partly because younger investors would not be spending as much time trading crypto now that lockdowns are ending.

The firm has moved the profits it made on the BTC trade into other “protective” assets such as inflation-linked government bonds. However, Baillie is confident that major financial institutions, including Ruffer and Goldman Sachs, will continue to buy Bitcoin, stating that another purchase is “certainly not off the menu:”

“If you have a multi-asset strategy then things that behave in different ways are really helpful. There’s no point being multi-asset if all your different assets move with the same dynamics.”

Ruffer is not the only large financial institution that has been dabbling in crypto, with data from Bitcointreasuries.org suggesting that 36 publicly traded companies currently hold BTC on their balance sheet.

Only six or 16% of publicly traded firms invested in Bitcoin are currently down on their position, including Nexon, Meitu, and Seetee. The top three holders — MicroStrategy, Tesla, and Square — are sitting on $5.2 billion worth of BTC between them.

UK prosecutor expects crypto scams to increase, but numbers remain low for now

April 5, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Less than 1% of overall fraud cases relate to cryptocurrency, but that number could be rising in line with Bitcoin and the crypto market's ascension.

The United Kingdom Crown Prosecution Service expects to see an increase in the number of Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency-related scams in the coming years, but admits they are still rather infrequent for the time being.

The CPS estimates that 86% of reported fraud is now cyber-related — a situation exacerbated in the past year by the outbreak of COVID-19 which pushed more people online, reports the Financial Times.

City of London police statistics show that 27,187 reports of cyber-crime were made across the U.K. and Northern Ireland between 2019 and 2020. Of that figure, 5,581 involved reports relating to cryptocurrency investments, amounting to a fifth of all reported cyber-crime incidents.

The number of general fraud cases totaled 822,276 in the same period, suggesting that, despite the meteoric rise in the fortunes of Bitcoin, and the wider crypto market, it still isn’t being readily adopted by would-be fraudsters. Just 0.6% of overall fraud cases related to cryptocurrency, while as little as 3% related to cyber-crime in general.

However, the rise of Bitcoin across 2020 didn’t go unnoticed by everybody. Scams involving cryptocurrency spiked 57% in the year leading up to December 2020 — a year in which Bitcoin quintupled in value.

Director of public prosecutions at the CPS, QC Max Hill, said promises of high investment returns were a common gambit used by fraudsters, and he expects cases involving crypto to increase. Concerning the rise of fraudulent cryptocurrency scams, Hill said:

“Whilst schemes using high investment returns have been used for decades, I think we will see increasing numbers. Cases coming in are in low numbers now but my prediction is they will increase.”

Statistics show that almost half of overall fraud cases relate to check, plastic card, and bank account cases. According to the City of London police, key threats for 2021 include, among other things, romance:

“The highest harm threats for 2020/21 are Courier, Romance, Payment Diversion, Investment, Computer Software Service and frauds linked to Card and Online Bank Accounts.”

A new economic crime court is scheduled to open in London in 2026, and will deal with fraud, economic crimes and cybercrimes in one place.

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