RIYADH: Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded lower on Tuesday, down 2.49 percent to $19,894 at 09.20 p.m. Riyadh time.
Ether, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $1,084, down 4.87 percent, according to data from CoinDesk.
Citron’s Left says crypto is a ‘complete fraud’
On Monday, Andrew Left, founder of Citron Research and one of the world’s best-known short-sellers, described cryptocurrencies as a “fraud.”
At a conference about fraud in financial markets where he saw potential fraud, Left told the audience: “I think crypto is just complete fraud, over and over and over.”
He did not say whether he had investments in cryptocurrencies.
Binance served crypto traders in Iran for years despite US sanctions
The world’s largest crypto exchange Binance continued to process trades by clients in Iran despite US sanctions and a company ban on doing business there, a Reuters investigation has found.
In 2018, the US reimposed sanctions that had been suspended three years earlier as part of Iran’s nuclear deal with major world powers. That November, Binance informed traders in Iran it would no longer serve them, telling them to liquidate their accounts.
But in interviews with Reuters, seven traders said they skirted the ban. The traders said they continued to use their Binance accounts until as recently as September last year, only losing access after the exchange tightened its anti-money laundering checks a month earlier. Until that point, customers could trade by registering with just an email address.
“There were some alternatives, but none were as good as Binance,” said Asal Alizade, a trader in Tehran who said she used the exchange for two years until September 2021. “It didn’t need identity verification, so we all used it.”
Eleven other people in Iran beyond those interviewed by Reuters said on their LinkedIn profiles that they too traded crypto at Binance after the 2018 ban. However, none of them responded to questions.
(With input from Reuters)
