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The recent bitcoin sell-off wasn’t the only cause for alarm among crypto investors this week. Many were rattled by news that a tech investor was robbed of $11 million worth of crypto at his home. Doorbell camera footage shows someone posing as a delivery worker approaching the home, accessible on street level in Mission Dolores, and asking for “Joshua,” who opened the door. They then asked to borrow a pen and followed the victim into the home.
The investor—whom we’re not naming, to protect his privacy—was bound with duct tape and forced at gunpoint to give up his cellphone and laptop, containing the digital keys to his crypto accounts, the SF Standard reported. The episode highlights a major vulnerability of crypto accounts compared with bank accounts. A robber trying to shift large amounts of money out of a bank account will typically encounter questioning by the bank and often a delay of a few days—whereas crypto can be moved instantaneously. That’s of course one of the advantages of crypto over traditional bank accounts, proponents have long argued. But as the Saturday robbery demonstrates, it can work against crypto investors.
People in the crypto world were already on edge after Coinbase disclosed a customer data breach in May, when some of its overseas customer support agents stole users’ data including their names, phone numbers and home addresses. (A spokesperson for Coinbase said the Saturday robbery has “no connection to the data theft incident we disclosed in May.”) But a home invasion at gunpoint elevates the risk to a whole new level. One crypto investor I talked to said he purchased firearms after the incident.
David Schwed, a cybersecurity expert and former chief information security officer at Robinhood, has some advice for crypto investors. They should set up a multistep approval process for moving funds from their wallets and keep their physical crypto wallets at a bank deposit box. It’s also a good idea to hold a decoy wallet with a smaller amount of crypto to placate the attacker. “The best thing,” he said, is to keep your crypto somewhere that is “not easily available” for a transaction when you’re “under duress.” The bottom line is that there’s a trade-off between convenience and security. If it’s easy for you to get your money out of an account quickly, it’s also easy for a thief.
De Minimis Disappearing in the U.K.—in 2029
The age of cut-rate Chinese e-commerce firms is well and truly over. The U.K. is following the U.S. in getting rid of the import duty loophole that allowed shopping sites to ship goods below a certain price to customers without paying duties. In the case of the U.K., the tax-free threshold is 135 pounds, or about $179, which is much less than the $800 limit that prevailed in the U.S. until earlier this year.
The good news for Temu, Shein and TikTok Shop is that the phase-out of this loophole—known internationally as the de minimis rule—won't occur until 2029, which gives the e-commerce firms time to prepare. The news is particularly bad for Shein, which also faces the possibility of suspension in France amid the discovery that users were selling sex dollars on the site. Shein also had been looking to go public: An IPO of the company seems even less likely now than it did a few months ago.—Martin Peers
In Other News
• A group of people concerned about AI safety issues is forming a network of super PACs to back candidates from both parties in the midterm elections, The New York Times reported.
• Elon Musk said Tesla plans to double the number of Robotaxis it’s operating in Austin, Texas, after users of the service said they weren’t able to hail rides or they experienced very long wait times.
Today on The Information’s TITV
On TITV today, catch Nancy Tengler of Laffer Tengler Investments, explaining why investors have overreacted to Oracle’s AI-related borrowings.
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