Australian Federal Police are notifying crypto users about a rise in impersonation fraud. I can only speculate, but feel it is an educated guess that some loss occurred prompting a Police report and a Police response.

The scam appears to be a basic 'account locked' phishing email, impersonating the Binance exchange. Ordinarily this would go in the junk bin and promptly be added to spam filters, but the peculiar quasi-legality of crypto means the fraud filters on email security systems gather dust while this stuff proliferates.

The RNZ nine-to-noon programme interviewed a crypto-shill on the 8th of May 2025. The subject of the interview was the 'Lindy Effect' which is also known to some as 'regulatory escape velocity'.

The gist of the effect is that the longer something exists, the more justified it's existence is. I can imagine the eyelids of agnostics, scientists and statisticians twitching at this thought, and they are not alone, because the effect is also an example of base rate fallacy being ignored for financial gain. For it to be taken seriously is unscientific in the extreme.

MR No. 2025 – 15

The Financial Market Authority (FMA) – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko – has welcomed the Court of Appeal’s decision on the Pushpay insider trading appeal.

In August 2023 the defendant was found guilty of an insider trading offence following a four-week trial in the Auckland High Court. They were sentenced to six months community detention and a fine of $100,000. In April 2024 they appealed the conviction and the High Court’s decision to refuse name suppression. The Crown also appealed the sentence, saying it was manifestly inadequate.

Memories are short in NZ politics. Patrick (Paddy) Gower has gone and interviewed a basic crypto scammer, Derek Handley, calling him a "tech guru" but I have my doubts this person can drive a C/C++ compiler.

It's another sad day for journalism in NZ. Stuff are uncritically reporting on "meme" coins which is simply double-speak for Pyramid schemes, and Pyramid schemes are illegal under the Fair Trading Act whether or not they provide a product or service, or both.

I read a good article about crypto on Slate today. It's not all bad news on this website! I welcome their criticism of crypto, we need more of this.

If we can't be bold enough to call a scam a scam, then scams will proliferate and Bitcoin and crypto-currencies are examples of what can happen when criticism is excluded, these scams rely on the chilling effect of stifling criticism to get to where they are.

In a concerning development in Kiwi "crypto" news, the FMA has approved what I understand to be New Zealand's first official stablecoin in a "sandbox pilot" experiment.

I believe this advent could only be possible under a National/ACT government, not that I excuse Labour from similar accusations, and this is turning a dangerous corner because it invites scams at a time when scamming is already rampant.

Financial crime is under-reported, so it is difficult to put exact numbers to the size of the problem, but a wide comparison is better than none. Bitcoin is undoubtedly a Pyramid scheme and as such, Bitcoin is financial crime.

Security Notice

The Pyramid scheme (cryptocurrency) Kucoin is being marketed via basic exploitation of insecure websites domiciled in the continental USA.

There's an old saying I first heard in motorsport -- there's a few nuggets of wisdom in that nexus of passion, energy and engineering -- that goes 'even monkeys fall from trees'. In plain language, the message in that saying is even the most-adapted creature to it's environment: the monkey, can still make a mistake.