Andy Pag, founder and coordinator of Mt. Gox Legal, announced that he is stepping down from his position at the end of the month. Pag told CoinDesk that he believes the legal issues facing the now-defunct bitcoin exchange could hold up its civil rehabilitation process for up to two more years.
In particular, the massive claim filed by startup incubator and former Mt. Gox partner CoinLab threatens the timing of the process. “CoinLab originally put in a bankruptcy claim ... of $75 million, which people thought was excessive … When we went to civil rehabilitation, everyone refiled the same claim, but CoinLab filed $16 billion,” Pag explained.
In other news, Facebook reportedly wants to raise as much as $1 billion in investments for its stablecoin project.
"Update on Facebook's cryptocurrency: Sources tell me that Facebook is now looking to get VC firms to invest in the Facebook cryptocurrency project we reported on earlier this year. I hear they are targeting big sums — as much as $1 billion," tweeted Nathaniel Popper, a technology reporter at The New York Times.
The stablecoin Facebook has been working on could be used for a “basket of foreign currencies held in bank accounts,” Popper also tweeted.
European crypto exchange Bitstamp is the latest recipient of New York’s virtual currency license. The BitLicense — issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) — will allow Bitstamp to offer bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and XRP trading pairs to New York residents. So far this year, prime brokerage Tagomi, stock trading app Robinhood and bitcoin ATM operators Cottonwood Vending and LibertyX have received the license, according to CoinDesk.
An American has been ordered to return the $823,357 he received from operating a bitcoin exchange without a license. The Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of California announced that Jacob Burrell Campos will also serve two years in jail, as well as pay a maximum fine of $250,000, after pleading guilty to the charges.
