We start this week’s wrap with a big story from the UK, where authorities have said they have uncovered a multi-billion dollar money laundering scheme that was being run out of London, Moscow and Dubai.

The FT has reported that the scheme “enabled Russian spies and European drug traffickers to evade sanctions using cryptocurrency.”

“Operation Destabilise centred on two companies – Smart and TGR – that acted as a financial hub for cash-rich global criminals and sanctioned individuals relying on cryptocurrency outside the banking system,” the report says.

According to the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) those who took advantage of the scheme included “the Kinahan Cartel, Irish cocaine traffickers linked to numerous contract killings, as well as funding ransomware groups, and Russian espionage operations from late 2022 to summer 2023.”

The NCA has called the investigation the most significant it has even undertaken.

The scheme shows how hostile states and organised criminals cut-off from the global banking sector can make use of crypto to operate in the western world, the FT has observed.

Paul Atkins to lead SEC

In another potentially significant development for the digital assets industry, Donald Trump has announced that Paul Atkins, a known crypto advocate, will lead the US SEC.

Atkins, a former commissioner at the SEC, is a proponent of cryptocurrency and fintech, and the agency is expected to play a leading role in implementing Trump’s crypto policy under his leadership, according to Bloomberg.

There was instant positive reaction from the industry after the announcement. Bitcoin broke records by crossing the $100,000 barrier for the first time ever, and reached $103,000 on Thursday December 5, according to data from MarketWatch.

Experts believe Atkins is exactly the kind of boss the crypto industry has always wanted, and there is a chance that Wall Street might like him too.

Chris Iacovella, president and chief executive of the American Securities Association was quoted by the FT saying: “We look forward to working with him to rebuild the public’s trust and confidence in the agency.”

The rise of memecoins

Memecoins have been around for a few years now, but have never enjoyed the sort of market attention received over the month since Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential race.

According to reports, established memecoins such as Dogecoin have even done better than the world’s largest crypto currency, bitcoin, in recent weeks.

But what’s even more significant is the introduction of a plethora of new memecoins during this period. These include “a euthanised grey squirrel, a Thai pygmy hippopotamus and a cartoon dog.”

Memecoins have no real value, no business model and no cash flow, are highly volatile and “rely on their popularity among traders to generate liquidity.”

And not everyone seems to be impressed by the latest boom. Changpeng Zhao, founder of crypto exchange Binance, wrote on X last week: “I am not against memes. But meme coins are getting ‘a little’ weird now.”

Celsius founder to plead guilty

The former boss of cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky, has said he will plead guilty to two of the seven counts of fraud that were brought against him last year. His trial is set for January 28 next year.

Mashinsky, 59, was indicted in July last year on counts of fraud, conspiracy and market manipulation charges. Accusations against him included misleading company clients to persuade them to invest, and artificially inflating his firms proprietary token prices, according to reports.

Celsius Network, like many other crypto firms, collapsed after the price of the digital assets fell in 2022. Mashinsky was among a number of crypto bosses who were charged with fraud in the aftermath of the crisis.

He is accused of having made profits of around $42m by selling tokens of his company.

$7.4 million landfill

A man in the UK lost a hard-drive in a landfill. He claims the device had bitcoins on it worth £6m ($7.4m). He now wants the local council to either give him access to the site, or compensate him for the loss.

The BBC has reported that James Howells has also proposed a deal to the local authorities in Newport. If allowed access to the site, and if able to recover the bitcoins, he will donate 10% of them to the local community.

But council barrister James Goudie KC was not impressed, and accused Mr Howells of “encouraging the council to ‘play fast and loose’ by ‘signing up for a share of the action’.”

Howells’ side disagree with that conclusion. They believe their client has a right to access the site and recover his bitcoins mine.

Howells is said to be an early joiner of the crypto race and successfully mined bitcoins at a time when they were a fraction of their current market value.

He has told the court that, back in 2013, his partner had mistakenly thrown away the hard-drive where he had mined the bitcoins. The local council however has made it clear it will not excavate the landfill site to look for the lost device.