An American bitcoin investor could face the death penalty after Thailand's navy accused him of violating the country's sovereignty by building a "seastead" home off the coast, which he insisted was simply in pursuit of a vision of "freedom".

Chad Elwartowski and his Thai girlfriend Supranee Thepdet, known as "Bitcoin Girl Thailand", are facing charges of threatening the kingdom's independence after authorities found their ocean-based home about 12 nautical miles from shore.

But Elwartowski told AFP their home was 13 nautical miles out, which he said is just outside Thailand's territorial waters.

An official complaint was filed to a Phuket police station, police colonel Nikorn Somsuk confirmed Wednesday.

"The navy and its team... found a concrete tank floating on the sea but there was no one on it," Nikorn told AFP. "So they filed a charge citing criminal code article 119."

If they are officially charged and found guilty, the maximum sentence Elwartowski and Supranee could face is the death penalty.

Nikorn said the navy would have to meet with provincial officials "to consider what to do next".

The Royal Thai Navy said on Facebook the couple "did not seek permission from Thailand" before constructing their home.

Putting a call out to other interested investors also shows "they do not care about Thailand as a sovereign state."

But Elwartowski, who worked as a software engineer for the US military in Afghanistan, Germany and South Korea, told AFP he and Supranee just wanted to live somewhere free.

"I like the idea of being able to vote with your home. If you don't like how your community is being run, you just float to a new one," he said.&nbsp;

The Bitcoin-rich couple are part of Ocean Builders, a community of entrepreneurs who aim to build permanent homes in waters outside of government territory.

They had recently called for 20 interested investors for new seasteads to be built around their maiden platform, which is "just outside of Thailand's territorial waters," said Elwartowski.&nbsp;

On April 10, he put out a call for people to invest in an "Initial Seastead Offering" which would have launched on April 15.

The "ISeaO" is now postponed, and Elwartowski said he and Supranee, whose English name is Nadia, just want to live together in peace.

"We didn't do anything on the seastead that was not legal on land but the feeling of being free is just amazing."

Some advocates of "seasteading" believe in creating "competing governments on the high seas", he said.

But Ocean Builders "never took a political stance" on the homes' purpose.

"That was for the customers to decide," he said.&nbsp;

The couple is now hiding in "a fairly safe place".

A statement published Monday on Ocean Builders' website said Elwartowski and Supranee were not responsible for the construction of the seastead.

An American bitcoin investor could face the death penalty after Thailand's navy accused him of violating the country's sovereignty by building a "seastead" home off the coast, which he insisted was simply in pursuit of a vision of "freedom".

An American bitcoin investor could face the death penalty after Thailand's navy accused him of violating the country's sovereignty by building a "seastead" home off the coast, which he insisted was simply in pursuit of a vision of "freedom". Chad Elwartowski and his Thai girlfriend Supranee Thepdet, known as "Bitcoin Girl Thailand", are facing charges of threatening the kingdom's independence after authorities found their ocean-based home about 12 nautical miles from shore. But Elwartowski told AFP their home was 13 nautical miles out, which he said is just outside Thailand's territorial waters. An official complaint was filed to a Phuket police station, police colonel Nikorn Somsuk confirmed Wednesday. "The navy and its team... found a concrete tank floating on the sea but there was no one on it," Nikorn told AFP. "So they filed a charge citing criminal code article 119." If they are officially charged and found guilty, the maximum sentence Elwartowski and Supranee could face is the death penalty. Nikorn said the navy would have to meet with provincial officials "to consider what to do next". The Royal Thai Navy said on Facebook the couple "did not seek permission from Thailand" before constructing their home. Putting a call out to other interested investors also shows "they do not care about Thailand as a sovereign state." But Elwartowski, who worked as a software engineer for the US military in Afghanistan, Germany and South Korea, told AFP he and Supranee just wanted to live somewhere free. "I like the idea of being able to vote with your home. If you don't like how your community is being run, you just float to a new one," he said. The Bitcoin-rich couple are part of Ocean Builders, a community of entrepreneurs who aim to build permanent homes in waters outside of government territory. They had recently called for 20 interested investors for new seasteads to be built around their maiden platform, which is "just outside of Thailand's territorial waters," said Elwartowski. On April 10, he put out a call for people to invest in an "Initial Seastead Offering" which would have launched on April 15. The "ISeaO" is now postponed, and Elwartowski said he and Supranee, whose English name is Nadia, just want to live together in peace. "We didn't do anything on the seastead that was not legal on land but the feeling of being free is just amazing." Some advocates of "seasteading" believe in creating "competing governments on the high seas", he said. But Ocean Builders "never took a political stance" on the homes' purpose. "That was for the customers to decide," he said. The couple is now hiding in "a fairly safe place". A statement published Monday on Ocean Builders' website said Elwartowski and Supranee were not responsible for the construction of the seastead.

US man could face death penalty over building 'sea home' in Thailand

Bitcoin plunged by 30 per cent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble.&nbsp;

After falling to as low as $11,159, it recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. It is down around 25 per cent this week, its largest weekly loss since April 2013.&nbsp;It capped a brutal week that had been touted as a new era of mainstream trading for the digital currency when bitcoin futures debuted on CME Group Inc, the world&#39;s largest derivatives market on Sunday.&nbsp;

Friday&#39;s fall bled into the US&nbsp;stock market, where shares of companies that have lashed their fortunes to bitcoin or blockchain - its underlying technology - took a knock. Long Blockchain Corp, Overstock.com Inc, Riot Blockchain Inc and Marathon Patent Group Inc lost between 2 per cent and 15 per cent.

The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has risen around twentyfold since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. But it has fallen each day since.

In the futures market, bitcoin one-month futures on Cboe Global Markets were earlier halted due to the steep price drop, while those trading on the CME hit the limit down threshold.&nbsp;&quot;The crypto markets have experienced several flash crashes over the past few years but we do believe there has been some overvaluation in the market, particularly over recent months,&quot; said Jamie Burke, CEO at venture capital firm Outlier Ventures.

&quot;It&#39;s much more likely this is a natural correction following over-exuberant market sentiment&quot;.&nbsp;On Friday, Mike Novogratz, the former macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, told <a href="https://bloom.bg/2BA9gGN">Bloomberg</a> he had halted plans to launch a crypto-currency hedge fund.&nbsp;

&quot;We didn&#39;t like market conditions and we wanted to re-evaluate what we&#39;re doing&quot;, he told Bloomberg.&nbsp;His Galaxy Digital Assets Fund was due to start on December 15, but he called clients on December 12 and told them he had changed his mind, Novogratz said in an interview with Bloomberg.

Novogratz told Reuters in November he hoped to raise about $500 million, making it the largest fund of its kind.&nbsp;Warnings about the risks of investing in the unregulated market have increased - Denmark&#39;s central bank governor called it a &quot;deadly&quot; gamble - and there have been worries about the security of exchanges on which cryptocurrencies are bought and sold.

South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year.&nbsp;Coinbase, a US&nbsp;company that runs one of the biggest exchanges and provides digital &quot;wallets&quot; for storing bitcoins, said on Wednesday it would investigate accusations of insider trading, following a sharp rise in the price of a bitcoin spin-off hours before it announced support for it.

On Friday, Coinbase said it had temporarily suspended buying and selling of bitcoin due to high traffic.

Crypto-Rivals

As some rival cryptocurrencies slid along with bitcoin, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier.&nbsp;But other cryptocurrencies rose this week, with investors moving into cheaper digital coins, rather than cashing out of the sector.

Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, soared to almost $900 earlier in the week, from around $500 a week earlier. Ripple, the third-biggest, has more than quadrupled in price since Monday.&nbsp;Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, said there had also been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency. Oanda does not handle trading in bitcoin.

&quot;Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly&quot;, Innes said on Bitcoin&#39;s recent retreat.&nbsp;While some say the launch by CME and its rival Cboe Global Markets of bitcoin futures over the last two weeks has given the digital currency some perceived legitimacy, many policymakers remain sceptical.

Bitcoin is known to go through wild swings. In November, it tumbled almost 30 per cent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 per cent from $4,979 to $2,972.

Bitcoin along with some other cryptocurrencies slid, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier

Bitcoin plunged by 30 per cent to below $12,000 on Friday as investors dumped the cryptocurrency after its sharp rise to a peak close to $20,000 prompted warnings by experts of a bubble. After falling to as low as $11,159, it recouped some losses to trade above $14,000 on the Bitstamp platform, down 9 percent on the day. It is down around 25 per cent this week, its largest weekly loss since April 2013. It capped a brutal week that had been touted as a new era of mainstream trading for the digital currency when bitcoin futures debuted on CME Group Inc, the world's largest derivatives market on Sunday. Friday's fall bled into the US stock market, where shares of companies that have lashed their fortunes to bitcoin or blockchain - its underlying technology - took a knock. Long Blockchain Corp, Overstock.com Inc, Riot Blockchain Inc and Marathon Patent Group Inc lost between 2 per cent and 15 per cent. The biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has risen around twentyfold since the start of the year, climbing from less than $1,000 to as high as $19,666 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Sunday and to over $20,000 on other exchanges. But it has fallen each day since. In the futures market, bitcoin one-month futures on Cboe Global Markets were earlier halted due to the steep price drop, while those trading on the CME hit the limit down threshold. "The crypto markets have experienced several flash crashes over the past few years but we do believe there has been some overvaluation in the market, particularly over recent months," said Jamie Burke, CEO at venture capital firm Outlier Ventures. "It's much more likely this is a natural correction following over-exuberant market sentiment". On Friday, Mike Novogratz, the former macro hedge fund manager at Fortress Investment Group, told Bloomberg he had halted plans to launch a crypto-currency hedge fund. "We didn't like market conditions and we wanted to re-evaluate what we're doing", he told Bloomberg. His Galaxy Digital Assets Fund was due to start on December 15, but he called clients on December 12 and told them he had changed his mind, Novogratz said in an interview with Bloomberg. Novogratz told Reuters in November he hoped to raise about $500 million, making it the largest fund of its kind. Warnings about the risks of investing in the unregulated market have increased - Denmark's central bank governor called it a "deadly" gamble - and there have been worries about the security of exchanges on which cryptocurrencies are bought and sold. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Youbit said on Tuesday it is shutting down and is filing for bankruptcy after it was hacked for the second time this year. Coinbase, a US company that runs one of the biggest exchanges and provides digital "wallets" for storing bitcoins, said on Wednesday it would investigate accusations of insider trading, following a sharp rise in the price of a bitcoin spin-off hours before it announced support for it. On Friday, Coinbase said it had temporarily suspended buying and selling of bitcoin due to high traffic. Crypto-Rivals As some rival cryptocurrencies slid along with bitcoin, the total estimated value of the crypto market fell to as low as $440 billion, according to industry website Coinmarketcap, having neared $650 billion just a day earlier. But other cryptocurrencies rose this week, with investors moving into cheaper digital coins, rather than cashing out of the sector. Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency by market size, soared to almost $900 earlier in the week, from around $500 a week earlier. Ripple, the third-biggest, has more than quadrupled in price since Monday. Stephen Innes, head of trading in Asia-Pacific for retail FX broker Oanda in Singapore, said there had also been moves out of bitcoin into Bitcoin Cash, a clone of the original cryptocurrency. Oanda does not handle trading in bitcoin. "Most of it is unsophisticated retail traders getting burned badly", Innes said on Bitcoin's recent retreat. While some say the launch by CME and its rival Cboe Global Markets of bitcoin futures over the last two weeks has given the digital currency some perceived legitimacy, many policymakers remain sceptical. Bitcoin is known to go through wild swings. In November, it tumbled almost 30 per cent in four days from $7,888 to $5,555. In September, it fell 40 per cent from $4,979 to $2,972.

Bitcoin falls 30 per cent, posts worst week since 2013

bitcoin-investors

Bitcoin Investors, News on Bitcoin Investors, stories on Bitcoin Investors, articles on Bitcoin Investors, Bitcoin Investors stories at Wion, Bitcoin Investors news, Bitcoin Investors latest news

bitcoin investors

US man could face death penalty over building 'sea home' in Thailand

Bitcoin falls 30 per cent, posts worst week since 2013