Today in Crypto: BitMEX Co-Founder Pleads Guilty; Argentina Embraces Crypto

The third founder of BitMEX, the crypto exchange, pleaded guilty Wednesday (March 9) in federal court to violating anti-money-laundering rules, the Department of Justice said, according to Coindesk.

Samuel Reed has pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York to violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

The report notes that he willfully failed “to establish, implement and maintain” an anti-money-laundering program at BitMEX. He’ll face a $10 million fine and a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Meanwhile, DCash, the digital version of the eastern Caribbean dollar used by eight island countries, is functioning again, Bloomberg reported.

The coin had been down almost two months. The glitch happened because of an expiring certificate on the version of the Hyperledger Fabric that hosted the DCash ledger, according to officials.

In other news, Bitstream Mining, the U.S. crypto miner, will go public as its owner, Agora Digital Holdings, plans an initial public offering on Nasdaq, Coindesk reported Wednesday.

Agora has invested $7.2 million to set up Bitstream’s operations. That included buying 5,000 mining rigs for $1.35 million, and $2.4 million for a power management firm, and the company wants to spend $6 million more to buy energy, order miners and develop mining infrastructure.

In more crypto news, Argentina’s sports stadiums, buses and highway billboards are now loaded with ads for crypto exchanges, with the country seeing a boom for it amid economic troubles, Bloomberg reported.

Workers have been getting paid more in crypto because it can protect them from exchange controls, currency swings and inflation.

Argentina reportedly has more workers getting paid this way than anywhere else.

Also, bitcoin is seeing a price surge, jumping above $42,000 as a rally in digital coins goes on, Bloomberg wrote.

This comes amid a bout of optimism following the U.S.’s announcement of new crypto rules, which has been called “historic” by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.

President Joe Biden’s executive order on crypto regulation seems to support the industry, Coindesk wrote.

The order encompasses crypto miners and will put the U.S. “ahead of the curve” as crypto’s popularity increases.