According to a Facebook post by Alexander Vinnik’s lawyer, Zoe Konstantopoulou, the alleged BTC-e money launderer has successfully been extradited to France.
Social media update
In a post on the social media site at UTC 8:10, Konstantopoulou wrote: “Alexander is at Hotel Dieu Hospital in Paris, as my French colleague informed me, while the Greek authorities are hiding and pretending to know nothing. She hasn’t been allowed to see him yet and they will try to question him tonight, exhausted and without communication or information! I already sent a request to postpone his hearing for tomorrow
If this is not a complete leveling of the rule of law, what is it?”
Cointelegraph reported earlier today, Jan. 23, that Greece had agreed to extradite Vinnik to France, contrary to the wishes of Vinnik and members of the Russian government.
However, this announcement was followed by some uncertainty, as Russian news outlet RIA Novosti reported on confusion among Vinnik’s lawyers after Vinnik was taken away from the hospital that housed him in Greece. His whereabouts at the time was unknown for some time.
His condition in question
Regarding the state of her client, Ms. Konstantopoulou wrote on Facebook:
“In every way the government is trying to scare him, terrorize him, in a moment of great agony, while his health has worsened … A man 30 months imprisoned, without charge, on the limits of existence, who fights with his only weapons – his body and life – is also suffering from a psychological war.”
Vinnik was arrested in late-July 2017 for laundering $4 billion in Bitcoin over six years as head of BTC-e, one of the world’s largest exchanges. The new few years saw a three-country tug-of-war over Vinnik, a Russian national.
Celsius to Begin Offering Compounding Interest on Crypto Deposits
Cryptocurrency lending and borrowing platform Celsius announced that it would be implementing compounding interest on cryptocurrencies deposited in its wallet, starting Feb. 1. The announcement came with a number of other updates in a Twitter AMA (ask me anything) with founder Alex Mashinsky on Jan. 22.
Compounding interest was a feature requested by the Celsius community, and brings the community-driven app in line with venture capital-backed competitors like BlockFi, and traditional financial services. In announcement sent to Cointelegraph the firm stated:
“You asked for it, and we delivered! Starting February 1, interest income on crypto deposits will officially be COMPOUNDING! That’s right – all the coins in your wallet will now be earning interest on interest!”
Other changes announced in the AMA covered revamped loyalty tiers, the ability to lend against EOS tokens, and a partnership with South Korean cryptocurrency exchange, Korbit.
Users can also now earn up to 8.1% APR on their first deposited Bitcoin.
Fastest growing crypto-lender
As Cointelegraph reported lin August 2019, Celsius Network became the fastest growing crypto-lender with $2.2 billion in coin loan origination. By November, the total loan amount had almost doubled again, reaching $4.25 billion.
Crypto-lending platforms continue to grow in popularity, giving holders the opportunity to earn interest on their deposited assets, while also enabling the use of tokens as collateral against cash or stablecoin loans.
Celsius offers varying interest rates on deposits of a wide range of popular cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC), along with coins such as Bitcoin Gold (BTG), Dash (DASH), ZCash (ZEC) and EOS. Higher interest rates of up to 10% are also available on a selection of stablecoins.
