Mobile messaging app Kik has raised $50 million from the private sale of its ethereum token Kin to institutional investors, including Blockchain Capital, Pantera Capital and Polychain Capital. The announcement is notable as Kik's Kin token may well be the first mainstream adoption of a custom cryptocurrency by a well-known company – Kik claims 15 million monthly active users, about 60 percent of whom are in the 13 to 24 age demographic. The token was previously announced in May , with its fair share of skeptics, who said the idea of incentivizing social media interactions with a points system has been tried before to no avail. The company will follow the pre-sale with a public "token distribution event" next month, targeting an additional $75 million by selling 1 trillion of a total of 10 trillion units to be created. The total raise is expected to net a combined $125 million in new capital for the company. Because the Kin token is based on ether...
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Adolf Hitler had dental fillings made from gold torn from the mouths of Jews in concentration camps, a new book on the Führer claims. It is well established that the Nazis removed gold teeth and fillings from their concentration camp victims Photo: AP The theory is based on a newly discovered document that shows Hitler's dentist had about 11lbs of dental gold from the concentration camps at his disposal for the treatment of senior Nazis. Co-author Henrik Eberle, a historian who has written several successful books on the Nazi leader, said dentist Hugo Blaschke had put 10 fillings in Hitler's mouth in 1944. "The most likely place the gold came from is from the supply Blaschke had from the concentration camps," Dr Eberle told the Daily Telegraph. "Most of this came from Jews. Gold from other sources was very hard to find in Germany and that is why I believe that Hitler's fillings came from Jewish victims of the Nazis...
If Janet Yellen and friends add any fuel to the rally in emerging-market currencies at Jackson Hole on Friday, the lira could be a big winner. Turkey’s currency is on course for its seventh monthly gain, and still the likes of Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Societe Generale SA are bullish. That’s because the advances have been limited and the lira remains the worst-performer among major currencies over the last 12 months. It’s also the most undervalued in terms of OECD purchasing power parity, with a real effective exchange rate that BlueBay Asset Management LLP sees as cheap. “On this measure it is screaming cheapness,” said Timothy Ash, a London-based senior emerging-market strategist at BlueBay, which oversees about $52 billion and holds the Turkish currency and bonds among its portfolios. The lira’s rally has been constrained by locals buying dollars as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s state of emergency drags on and the nation’s companies grapple with vast financing nee...
ERLIN (AP) — A 93-year-old man has been charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder for serving as an SS guard at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp, prosecutors said Monday. Oskar Groening is accused of helping operate the death camp in occupied Poland between May and June 1944, when some 425,000 Jews from Hungary were brought there and at least 300,000 almost immediately gassed to death. In his job dealing with the belongings stolen from camp victims, prosecutors said among other things he was charged with helping collect and tally money that was found. "He helped the Nazi regime benefit economically, and supported the systematic killings," state prosecutors in the city of Hannover said in a statement. Groening's attorney, Hans Holtermann, declined to comment on the charges. Groening himself has openly talked about his time as a guard and said while he witnessed horrific atrocities, he didn't commit any crimes himself. In 2005, he told Der Spieg...
Although nearly 70 years have passed since the end of World War II, suspected Nazis are still being brought to justice. The latest suspect is 93-year-old Oskar Groening , charged with 300,000 counts of accessory to murder while a guard at the Auschwitz death camp — one for each Jew gassed to death there from May to June, 1944. Groening, who lives in Germany, has openly discussed his role as a guard in the past, claiming he didn't participate in any crimes that he witnessed. At Auschwitz he was tasked with counting money stolen from Jewish luggage and organizing it for transfer to Berlin, according to PBS . "Through his activities, he provided the Nazi regime with economic advantage and supported systematic killings," the Hannover Public Attorney's Office in Germany said in a statement, as The Wall Street Journal reported . That office pointed out that Groening allegedly knew prisoners considered unfit were killed in gas chambers. Aging suspected Nazi...
ehan Chu says he’s got an early-mover advantage that will help his cryptocurrency fund stand out from the crowd. The Hong Kong-based former art adviser started investing in bitcoin in 2013, when the digital asset saw its first major rally. Since then, prices have quadrupled, enabling Chu to quit his job, start a venture capital firm investing in blockchain technologies last year -- and now, launch a cryptocurrency fund that’s seeking to raise $100 million. Part of that money is already in the bank and Chu has started investing. His Kenetic Capital is among a slew of firms that are lining up at the new frontier after soaring prices and proliferation of initial coin offerings -- sold by corporates to raise money -- boosted demand for digital assets. Chu, whose fund is advised by ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, says he isn’t interested in speculation, but rather in tokens sold by companies with strong fundamentals and long-term potential. “When we make a call f...
