Today in Crypto: Argentina Hunts Crypto Miners

Chartered trust bank Protego Trust Bank has added a new CEO in Ron Totaro, who has decades of experience in building and leading FinTech, banking, payments and blockchain companies, a press release said Monday.

Totaro was recently the CEO of Tassat Group, where he worked on bolstering the blockchain-based, real-time payment solutions which let banks tokenize U.S. dollar deposits.

“Ron brings a solid understanding of digital asset and blockchain technology as well as strong relationships with banking and private equity leaders,” said Greg Gilman, founder and CEO of Protego Holdings Corp.

Meanwhile, crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime will return all outside capital to investors, as it transitions to be part of a family office, Seeking Alpha reported Monday.

LedgerPrime was part of Ledger Holdings, which was acquired by FTX last year. LedgerPrime plans to move outside of FTX, instead becoming a subsidiary of Alameda Research, a family office — so it won’t be able to keep its status as a fund, according to CEO Shiliang Tang.

In other news, Argentina’s tax collection agency, AFIP, has conducted raids looking for secret crypto miners, Coindesk wrote Monday, citing the agency itself.

AFIP carried out a raid last Tuesday in San Juan, finding an agricultural producer with crypto mining equipment in a fruit cooling area. And it said last week it raided a crypto miner from Buenos Aires operating on a property registered for other purposes, where it found hundreds of rigs and thousands of video cards.

Most miners in Argentina carry out their mining secretly so they don’t have to pay taxes while taking advantage of lower residential power rates.

Meanwhile, the Blockchain Association will be starting its own political action committee, as the crypto industry tries to gain a foothold in politics in the U.S., Bloomberg wrote Monday.

The Blockchain Association is a prominent crypto trade group, and its members include stablecoin issuer Circle and exchanges like Crypto.com and Kraken.

Finally, the Helium Network’s migration to Solana could have a competitor, with Algorand executives tweeting that they want to bring it to their blockchain instead of Solana, Coindesk wrote Monday.

Founder Silvio Micali and Chief Technology Officer John Alan Wood, in what could be interpreted as a direct shot at Solana, said Helium “needs a secure, robust and scalable chain.”

Borderless Capital, the Algorand-focused venture firm and an investor in Helium, also wanted Helium to look at other proposals before deciding where to go, calling for “more rigorous analysis and transparency.”

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