Bitcoin is still struggling to pass the $4,000 resistance.
After managing to pass $4,000 for a brief moment in late-February, the coin fell back again, and since then not much has changed.
Despite this, Bitcoin had a relatively stable week, without experiencing any significant price fluctuations.
Currently, the leading cryptocurrency on the market is in the green, with modest gains over the course of the day.
The $3,900 resistance level that Bitcoin surpassed and is currently circulating around is a nice stop for buyers, and could potentially lead to reaching higher levels such as $3,950 and $3,980.
Other major coins are also in the green for the moment, and the total market cap is standing still at $134 billion.
Auscoin Shuts down After Executive Arrested on Drug Trafficking Charges
Sam Karagiozis, Bitcoin trader and the creator of Australian Bitcoin ATM company Auscoin, was recently arrested on drug trafficking charges.
As Dark Web News has reported, joint mission managed by the Australian Federal Police and AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) led to their discovery that Karagiozis was managing an organized crime organization.
He was allegedly distributing drugs using the dark web, Bitcoin accounts and legitimate businesses to source their actions.
Karagiozis was arrested and charged last week after authorities raided properties in possession of the accused.
They seized 30 kilograms of drugs including cocaine and ketamine, and confiscated $2 million worth of assets, among other things.
Karagiozis was charged on 14 counts, including transportation of drugs, narcotics possession and drug trafficking.
According to the Australian daily newspaper The Age, Karagiozis was denied bail and will appear in court this June.
Soon after Karagiozis' arrest, Auscoin's official website went offline, and there is no information on when or if the website will continue operating.
Dark Web Drug Dealers Are Relocating Their Work to Popular Apps
Drug dealers that used to run exclusively through dark web markets are now relocating to popular encrypted apps.
According to a recent report from The Independent, drug vendors are now adopting encrypted messaging applications such as Telegram, and are communicating through street graffiti as a way of promoting their accounts.
They also use automated bots to communicate with their customers in a more secretive and secure way, as Dark Web News has also reported.
Researchers believe that this is a growing trend, and one of the main reasons is the crackdown on dark web markets over time.
A crucial factor is also the encryption in these apps that allow the drug dealers to remain anonymous and dodge exposure.
A dark web researcher that wanted to remain unnamed revealed this information for The Independent and shared images of channel names painted on walls in public areas as a way for traffickers to secretly advertise their channels to their potential buyers.
Another evolving trend among darknet dealers involves the way they distribute the drugs.
Instead of delivering the goods themselves or sending them through post offices, dealers are increasingly using "dead drops"-when they hide the drugs in public places that are easy to access as a way of avoiding the risk of being traced.
However, their means of payment remain the same. Once the deal has been made, the buyers pay in cryptocurrencies before picking up their package.
CipherTrace CEO Qualified as Canada's First Bitcoin Expert Witness
Dave Jevans, CEO of Blockchain security firm CipherTrace, was admitted as a witness by a Canadian court over a case involving CDN $1.4 million worth of Bitcoins.
Jevans was called with the aim to analyze cryptocurrency transitions of the offender in the case, Matthew Phan, which made him the nation's first certified Bitcoin expert witness.
These Bitcoins were confiscated in the first-ever Canadian cryptocurrency seizure by the police. Phan was arrested last year for allegedly dealing drugs through the dark web and illegally obtaining a firearm.
In his testimony, Jevans unveiled that he managed to track several dark web transactions from two marketplaces, Agora and Evolution, which led to Phan's Bitcoin addresses.
He also gave a brief insight into various aspects of cryptocurrencies, including how they are used on the dark web, and how they can be traced.
New Task Force Will Fight Growing Crypto Crime in South Korea
With cryptocurrency offenses increasing by 800 percent in South Korea, the country's Supreme Prosecutor's Office has launched a new task force that will be dealing with this emerging sector of crime.
Back in 2016 only 53 cases related to cryptocurrency crimes were reported. Just one year later, the number increased up to 453.
However, in 2018 South Kora dealt with more than 4,500 cases reported by its residents.
As the Korean Broadcasting System reports, the task force was launched earlier this month, and the principal goal is to put new controls on crypto money laundering, fraud and other crypto-related illegal activities that are on the rise in the country.
Self-Proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto Claims He Can Trace Privacy Coins
Craig Wright, Australian computer scientist and self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, recently told CNBC that he knows how to put an end to privacy coins Monero and Zcash.
Wright went on to state that he will do this by the end of the year.
His claims, if true, might put an end to the use of privacy coins in illicit activities on the dark web.
Right now, Monero is rising to become a popular altcoin of choice for dark web users, as Bitcoin has shown to be a less reliable alternative because it can be traced.
This is not the first controversial claim coming from Wright. He is known to the public as the self-proclaimed Satoshi after he publicly identified himself as the inventor of Bitcoin and the man behind the pseudonym.
However, the claim was met with uncertainty from the crypto community back then, as Wright couldn't entirely prove that he was the person behind the creation of the first cryptocurrency.
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That's it for our summary of this week's major crypto news headlines. This is the 37th post in our crypto news series. Catch up on the latest installments here:
