Business owners in Amsterdam express their worries in today’s crypto news about criminals who are threatening to harm their businesses unless they pay them insanely high amounts of bitcoin. According to local NLTimes, multiple businesses received emails where the criminals demand more than 50,000 euros worth of bitcoin. If the business owners fail to pay the extorted sum, the criminals threaten that they will plant hand grenades where the business are or as a second option, the business will be shot upon. As a precaution, businesses are required to shut down in Amsterdam for an indefinite period of time in case explosive devices are found or a shooting takes place. A piece of the email threat reads:

 “You probably noticed how many entrepreneurs have had to close their doors recently by order of the municipality. To prevent you from being the next one, you must immediately take action.’’

In order to pay the extortion fee, the business owners are instructed to open a new account on two crypto exchanges and them being Coinbase and Coinmama. Next up they have to buy bitcoins on either one of the exchanges and then transfer them to a required address. At least three coffee shops have already received a threat like this in Amsterdam and also a few nightclubs. The criminals even said that the extortion fee will be doubled if the owners don’t make the payment in five days. The email recipients must keep the threat confidential and they are warned for informing the police or any other law enforcement body. If they don’t maintain the confidentiality, the extortion fee will reach a stunning 200,000 euros. However, there is no single business registered to have paid the said amount.

We have been covering the economic crisis in Venezuela on many occasions on our DC Forecasts crypto news site - and the hyperinflation that has been staggering for many residents of the country. The good news, however, is that Venezuelans have found a way out of the crisis - in Bitcoin. According to Coin Dance, more than 300 million Bolivars (Venezuela's fiat currency) have been traded last week only - and the record could only be broken this week, knowing that more than 292 million Bolivars have already been traded.  

The founder of Beijing-based venture capital firm named BitFund made his announcement public that he will no longer invest in blockchain projects or ICOs in the latest crypto news today. The founder, Li Xiaolai, publicly announced:

 “From this day on, Li Xiaolai personally will not invest in any projects (whether it is blockchain or early stage). So, if you see ‘Li Xiaolai’ associated with any project (I have been associated with countless projects without my knowledge, 99% is not an exaggeration), just ignore it. I plan to spend several years to contemplate on my career change. As for what I’m doing next, I’m not sure just yet.”

There might be a few reasons why Li decided to move away from the crypto sector mostly because of the crackdown on ICOs by the Chinese government and also because of the rise in scams in the crypto space. A Chinese national TV released a documentary about the technology claiming that blockchain has the potential to surpass the success of the Internet. However, just after the release of the documentary, the government of China tightened the ban saying that ICOs are considered as illegal fundraising tools. The government stated:

 “Such activities are not really based on blockchain technology, but rather the practice of speculative blockchain concepts for illegal fundraising, pyramid schemes and fraud. The main features are as follows:

1. Risk of illegal activities, unregulated overseas markets and inability to track or monitor transactions made in ICOs.

2. Illegal operations like profit-generating pyramid schemes and creating Ponzi schemes by describing them as ‘financial innovations.’’

Li does still hold a huge amount of Bitcoin worth billions of dollars but more investors are turning away because the multi-billion investor Li left the crypto space as the major managing partner.