Today in crypto: Argentina drives out crypto miners

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

Totaro was most recently the CEO of the Tassat Group, where he worked to strengthen blockchain-based real-time payment solutions that allow banks to tokenize US dollar deposits.

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

Meanwhile, crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime will return all outside capital to investors, as it transforms to become 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 exit FTX, instead becoming a subsidiary of Alameda Research, a family office – so it won’t be able to retain its fund status, according to CEO Shiliang Tang.

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

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

Most miners in Argentina do their mining in secret so they don’t have to pay taxes while enjoying lower residential electricity rates.

Meanwhile, the Blockchain Association will create its own political action committee, as the crypto industry tries to gain a foothold in politics in the United States, Bloomberg wrote Monday.

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

Finally, the Helium network migration to Solana may 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 chain that is secure, robust and scalable.”

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

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