ReportWire

Tag: cryptocurrencies

  • Emails Show Even Epstein Thought Crypto Pumps are Unethical

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    The latest dump of Epstein files from the U.S. Department of Justice has a variety of interesting emails and other documents related to Jeffrey Epstein’s early interest and involvement in Bitcoin and the crypto industry. Previous reports established a connection between Epstein and the funding of Bitcoin Core development through Joi Ito at MIT, but new documents indicate Epstein may have had some involvement and even invested (directly or indirectly) in the early stages of a few different key crypto startups from crypto exchange giant Coinbase to Bitcoin technology company Blockstream. They also reveal Epstein had misgivings about profiting from crypto token pumps. 

    Some of the oldest emails in the Epstein files related to Bitcoin involve All-In Podcast co-host and angel investor Jason Calacanis, who Epstein reached out to in an effort to get in touch with anyone working on the two-year old decentralized financial network in 2011. Calacanis pointed to two Bitcoin Core contributors, Gavin Andresen and Amir Taaki, who had recently appeared on Calacanis’s show This Week in Startups

    Anduril founder and CEO Palmer Luckey pointed to this interaction with glee, as Luckey has a longstanding beef with Calacanis. The All-In co-host also published his own statement on X in an attempt to distance himself from Epstein.

    In the email, Calacanis warned Epstein that Andresen and Taaki were not business types, stating, “so you know, these are folks who are not trying to build a business. they are the crazy open source folks who are radicals. their motivation is more inline with Wikileaks or wikipedia.”

    According to an X post from Taaki, “He wanted to invest in my company. I was for it but my CEO looked him up and said absolutely not. Dodged a bullet lol wish i can read this email.”

    There are also a number of emails involving Epstein and Blockstream co-founder and former CEO Austin Hill. At one point, Hill emailed Ito, Epstein, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman seemingly upset about investments made by some Blockstream investors in some of its perceived competitors, namely Ripple and Stellar.

    “Ripple, and Jed’s new stellar are bad for the ecosystem we are building and it does our company damage to have investors who are backing two horses in the same race,” Hill wrote.

    Epstein also received regular forwarded emails of Coinbase investor updates from Blockchain Capital co-founder Brock Pierce, who was also a co-founder of stablecoin giant Tether. The specifics are unclear, but there appears to have been a business arrangement between Epstein and Blockchain Capital, as one email claims the investment firm was paying Epstein and Richard Kahn, who was his longtime accountant, “a big number.”

    One notable Coinbase investor update that Pierce forwarded to Epstein will be most relevant to those interested in the history of Bitcoin’s block size war. In the email, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong indicates the crypto exchange is working behind the scenes to make sure the Bitcoin protocol is not “held back by any of the early idealists.”

    Roughly a year later, Coinbase would be a signatory of the so-called New York Agreement, which was a plan for changes to the Bitcoin network signed by many of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, wallet providers, and miners. The plan would eventually be abandoned prior to its completion, at least partly due to the perception that the changes would effectively implement a corporate takeover of the decentralized Bitcoin protocol.

     

    In another email exchange with Bitcoin developer Jeremy Rubin that looks humorous in hindsight, Epstein would claim he had ethics-related concerns with the idea of profiting off of the pumping of crypto tokens. “I am more than happy to fund things but as i am high profile, it can’t be questionable ethics,” Epstein told Rubin, indicating he may have been more worried about potential bad publicity. “Their deal is to pump the currency, it is dangerous.”

    While the full list of crypto investments made by Epstein is still being clarified, these documents have provided plenty of intrigue in terms of the disgraced financier’s interactions with some of the most prominent names in the crypto industry back in its earliest days of development.

    Of course, much like Republicans and Democrats, every crypto shill has interpreted the documents to fit their own narratives, ignoring the reality that all kinds of different people from varying backgrounds were willing to look the other way when it came to getting something out of Epstein, whether it be money, advice, or connections.

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    Kyle Torpey

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  • It Turns Out Crypto’s Stablecoin Adoption is Around 1% of Previous Estimates

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    Stablecoins were all the rage in 2025. The GENIUS Act provided much needed regulatory clarity for the dollar-pegged crypto tokens, and tech giants like Stripe and Sony got involved with their own related products and services.

    President Trump has also reportedly profited handsomely from stablecoins and the crypto sector more generally, although the USD1 stablecoin he’s affiliated with has been at the center of serious corruption allegations. Additionally, Wall Street veteran Tom Lee made headlines by referring to stablecoins as crypto’s ChatGPT moment, echoing a report released by Citi earlier in the year.

    The crypto industry often pointed to blockchain data to prove that 2025 was indeed a record year for stablecoins in terms of adoption. However, a new report from McKinsey Financial Services indicates the metrics used to show how much stablecoin adoption had increased in the past few years are extremely misleading.

    Raw blockchain transfers are oftentimes pointed to as proof of stablecoin adoption, but the reality is only a small percentage of this activity—around 1% of roughly $35 trillion in total transaction volume—is actually related to real-world payments. This means stablecoin adoption, which the report estimates at $390 billion for 2025, only accounts for around 0.02% of global payments.

    According to the report, B2B payments and international remittances account for most of the stablecoin payment activity, and activities such as crypto exchanges moving funds between blockchain accounts, automated activity with smart contracts, and trading on decentralized exchanges should not be included in payment measurements. The report also indicates around 60% of this activity is originating in Asia, adding, “Activity today is driven almost entirely by payments sent from Singapore, Hong Kong, and Japan.”

    Of course, overblown or outright false adoption metrics are not new in the crypto world. Various data points, such as increased on-chain activity around decentralized finance (DeFi) apps, can be used to tell all kinds of tall tales. There has also been plenty of hype built around metrics such as transactions per second over the years, which tend to miss the point of what makes this technology valuable.

    Despite the clear overstatements in stablecoin payment adoption made by various entities in the crypto industry, the report also indicates there are still signs of real growth. For example, the $390 billion in stablecoin payments occurring in 2025 is more than double what was seen in the previous year. Additionally, the total supply of stablecoins has increased from less than $30 billion in 2020 to more than $300 billion today.

    Of course, not all of this was necessarily positive adoption, as a report from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis indicated that stablecoins now account for the vast majority of illicit crypto transfers. Reports have also pointed to heavy use of Tether’s USDT stablecoin by the Maduro regime, and adoption by the Central Bank of Iran shows why a pro-stablecoin policy in the U.S. is a double-edged sword.

    More generally, the prominence of stablecoins in crypto has caused a rift between cypherpunks focused on ideology and fintech startups focused strictly on adoption metrics. While stablecoins were originally seen as a boon for crypto adoption, it’s now gotten to the point where stablecoin issuers are launching their own blockchain infrastructure, adding another layer of centralized control to the tech stack.

    While those like the aforementioned Tom Lee see the issuance of stablecoins and other tokens based on real world assets, such as tokenized stocks, as bullish for decentralized crypto networks like Ethereum, questions remain over how much value will accrue to these open protocols or if stablecoin issuers and other centralized entities could successfully cut these networks out of the equation entirely.

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    Kyle Torpey

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  • French Tax Agent Allegedly Sold Personal Data of Crypto Users to Criminals

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    A French tax agent, identified as Ghalia C. in French media reports, has been accused of accessing and selling sensitive information from internal French tax authority databases. Criminals are said to have then used this data in at least one violent home assault on a prison officer and his wife, stemming from a dispute over smuggled mobile phones in a prison cell. 

    Ghalia also queried details on those known to be involved with crypto who would be suspected of having substantial holdings of digital cash, potentially setting them up for “$5 wrench attacks” where thieves use physical force to force irreversible transfers of bitcoin, stablecoins, or other types of digital assets. In addition to traditional crypto hacking and thefts over the internet, such as a recent example where an Office Space-style exploit was used, physical attacks on crypto users, where transfers are forced under threat or use of violence, are becoming increasingly common.

    The tax agent in question recently lost an appeal and will remain in custody after a hearing at France’s appellate court. She admitted providing the data but insisted she was unaware of the buyers’ plans. In an English translation from French reports, she stated, “I gave information about this person. I knew nothing of what was done and I would like to ask forgiveness from this couple who were attacked.”

    Prosecutors noted her refusal to unlock her phone or name her sponsor, arguing she abused her role to aid a repeat offender. Beyond crypto users and the prison guard who was the victim of a home invasion, Ghalia allegedly sold details on health inspectors, a judge, and billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

    2025 marked an all-time record in terms of physical crypto thefts, and a substantial number of these attacks have occurred in France. For example, there was the abduction of David Balland, who is a co-founder of crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger, and his partner, who were held for ransom tied to their crypto assets. Additionally, kidnappers targeted the father of a prominent crypto entrepreneur and went as far as to sever a finger in a ransom scheme, but police intervened and rescued him.

    Of course, these threats extend beyond France, as seen in a San Francisco home invasion late last year where an attacker disguised as a delivery driver entered a Mission Dolores residence in broad daylight, pulled a gun, duct-taped the victim, and coerced the transfer of $11 million in crypto.

    While 2025 set records for crypto’s role in broader illicit flows, which blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis says reached $154 billion in transactions to illicit addresses, Ghalia took payments through traditional means via bank cash deposits and Western Union transfers. 

    No reports directly link Ghalia’s data sales to one of the specific crypto thefts that took place in France last year, but this case underscores how casual handling of personal information clashes with the reality of irreversible payments of digital cash. And this juxtaposition between crypto and personal data security is increasingly put on display in more cases, as also illustrated by the case of the data breach at a third-party payment processor used by Ledger reported earlier this week.

    Crypto enables full financial self-custody, yet sensitive data remains vulnerable in centralized databases and has not seen a similar upgrade towards a more decentralized infrastructure. Bitcoin advocates and cypherpunks have consistently flagged government and institutional personal data processing and storage mandates as major opsec risks. Unfortunately, widespread data mishandling may persist until more breaches lead to a push for a new paradigm of individually-controlled data as opposed to government and corporate-controlled honeypots.

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    Kyle Torpey

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  • Departing NYC Mayor Adams Next Wants to Fix Education, Violence, and Antisemitism with Crypto

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    Outgoing New York City Mayor Eric Adams loves crypto. He created a mayoral “Office of Digital Assets and Blockchain,” and supposedly had his first three paychecks converted to bitcoin so the city could even pay him in crypto.

    And in remarks made Monday at what was probably his final press conference as mayor, he indicated that his love affair with crypto is only intensifying. In fact, Adams is somehow going to fix violence, education, and antisemitism with crypto, he says.

    When speaking about next steps toward the end of the presser, he got off to a rocky start: “I’m excited about the next step. I cannot tell you … I’ve said over and over again, anyone would like to finish a job that you started.” And then he uttered three or four partial sentences I truly could not parse. Then he got his answer back on track with the following:

    “I want to do my book. I’m going to go back to school. But I also want to use cryptocurrency to go after violence, educate our children, and really deal with antisemitism that we’re seeing globally. So I’ve always wanted to uplift families and children, and I think this is a great opportunity to use technology to do so. And also I have a great deal of opportunities I’ve always wanted to do.”

    What does he mean? Is he turning his time machine back to 2021 and starting a DAO to tackle violence, education, and antisemitism? Is he just donating a bunch of crypto to charities related to those causes? Is he creating his own memecoin? For now, I think it’s best to assume he was just expressing himself artistically at this press conference, and that the statement was a sort of Etsy-style mood board in spoken word form. 

    Incidentally, 2025 was an absolutely massive year for lobbying in the crypto industry. According to the Hill, by July of this year no fewer than 27 crypto companies had filed their initial lobbying disclosures. 

    Also in July, Politico reported that Coinbase erected branded vending machines on the National Mall and distributed 5,000 Coinbase chocolate bars, with a representative explaining that they were trying to “create a sugar rush for crypto across the Capitol.”

    If they’re looking for more ideas like that one—and I truly mean this—they’d be fools to hire anyone other than the inventor of the phrase “All my haters become my waiters when I sit down at the table of success.” And they don’t even have to pay him in real money.

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    Mike Pearl

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  • Crypto Markets Face Volatility as Key Inflation and Jobs Data Loom This Week

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    Mohammedia – Crypto markets started the week on shaky ground as investors prepared for a wave of economic data that could shake prices in the days ahead. Bitcoin fell again late yesterday, briefly dropping below $88,000 in what has become a familiar end-of-week dip.

    It later recovered slightly to around $89,000 by this morning in Asia, but the move did little to calm nerves, with the asset still sitting near its lowest level of the week.

    The timing is not random. After weeks of delays linked to the U.S. government shutdown, a large batch of economic figures is finally set to be released.

    Traders are now trying to digest everything at once — from jobs and consumer spending to inflation — making markets more sensitive than usual. Analysts say this sudden flood of information increases the risk of sharp price swings, especially for volatile assets like cryptocurrencies.

    Early in the week, the focus will be on retail sales and employment data from the U.S. These numbers will help show whether consumers are still spending and whether the labor market remains strong.

    Solid results could support the Federal Reserve’s cautious approach to interest rates, while weaker data may revive fears that the economy is losing momentum.

    Read also: AMMC Trains Regulators on Crypto Supervision as Morocco Prepares New Legal Framework

    Inflation data later in the week is expected to carry the most weight. Investors will closely watch the Consumer Price Index and the Core PCE Price Index for signs that price pressures are finally easing.

    If inflation remains stubbornly high, expectations for future rate cuts could be pushed further out, which often puts pressure on riskier markets such as crypto.

    Outside the U.S., global developments are also adding to uncertainty. Japan’s central bank is widely expected to cut interest rates later this week.

    Some analysts believe this move could trigger volatility across global markets, while others argue that investors have already priced it in.

    There were a few positive signals for the crypto industry. Several major crypto companies recently received conditional approval to operate as national trust banks in the U.S., a step seen as supportive for the broader use of stablecoins. Still, the news was not enough to offset macroeconomic concerns.

    Ethereum has held up better than many other cryptocurrencies, staying above $3,000, but most altcoins remain under pressure.

    With major economic data releases and several Federal Reserve officials scheduled to speak this week, traders are bracing for more ups and downs as crypto markets react to the bigger economic picture.

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  • The Year in Trump Cashing In

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    On January 17, 2025, three days before Trump’s second Inauguration, he took another leap into the crypto world, releasing a new meme coin: $TRUMP. The day before the ceremony, his wife, Melania, launched her own coin, $MELANIA. Unlike the World Liberty tokens, which gave their holders certain governance rights associated with the company, these assets were simply memes. The $TRUMP one featured a picture of the President with his fist raised and the words “FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT” emblazoned over him. The Melania meme showed a closeup of her face with her hands clasped in front, as if in ebullient prayer. After the Trumps advertised the coins on their social-media accounts, their value jumped up. “$TRUMP is currently the hottest digital meme on earth,” Eric Trump said in a statement to the Times. “This is just the beginning.”

    The Rake-In

    With Trump back in the Oval Office, and players all over the world keen to get in his good books, developments came thick and fast, many of them involving crypto, foreign money, or both. One of his first acts as President was ordering agencies to identify regulations affecting the digital-asset sector and recommend which should be “rescinded or modified.” In February, the S.E.C.—now under new leadership—asked a court to pause its lawsuit against Sun, who by then had raised his World Liberty stake to seventy-five million dollars.

    In March, Trump hosted a crypto summit at the White House, which was organized by his “crypto czar,” David Sacks, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and announced plans for a U.S. “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.” Later that month, Eric and Donald, Jr., merged a company that they had formed only the previous month with a Canadian-based bitcoin-mining outfit, Hut 8, to take an ownership stake in a new company, American Bitcoin, which, according to the Wall Street Journal, had ambitions to become the world’s biggest bitcoin miner, and to establish its own bitcoin reserve.

    The spring also saw the Trump brothers expanding in other areas, particularly the Persian Gulf. In April, Dar Global, a Saudi-owned real-estate developer that was already partnering with the Trumps on other Trump-branded projects in the Middle East, declared plans to launch a Trump hotel in Dubai and a Trump golf resort in neighboring Qatar. Eric Trump was in the Gulf for these announcements.

    On the home front, his brother Donald, Jr., attended the launch party for another of his business ventures: the Executive Branch, an exclusive Washington club supposedly charging members an entry fee of half a million dollars. News reports identified Donald, Jr., as one of the club’s owners, and two others as Malik and Buskirk, his partners at 1789, and Zach and Alex Witkoff, two of Steve Witkoff’s sons, who are both co-founders of World Liberty Financial. CNBC said that the attendees at the Executive Branch party included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Paul Atkins, the head of the S.E.C., and Brendan Carr, the head of the Federal Communications Commission.

    Crypto—and the cultivation of foreign investors—remained central to the Trumps’ enrichment strategy. According to a lengthy report on their “global crypto cash machine” that Reuters published in October, Eric Trump, while attending a cryptocurrency conference in Dubai in May, pitched World Liberty to potential investors, including a Chinese businessman named Guren (Bobby) Zhou, who had been arrested for suspected money laundering in Britain. (Zhou denied any wrongdoing, and he has not been convicted of any crimes.) Subsequently, the Reuters report said, a U.A.E.-based company associated with Zhou purchased a hundred million dollars’ worth of the World Liberty Financial crypto tokens, WLFI. Evidently, there have been many other foreign purchases. An analysis published by Reuters indicated that more than two-thirds of the purchases of World Liberty’s tokens were carried out via digital wallets that were likely linked to overseas buyers.

    Trump also gained from official largesse. The Constitution explicitly prohibits federal officials, including the President, from accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional consent. But, in February, Trump, who had been complaining about how long it was taking to build a new Air Force One, went to Palm Beach International Airport and toured a luxurious Boeing 747 owned by the government of Qatar. In May, days before leaving on a trip that took him to Qatar, the U.A.E., and Saudi Arabia, Trump announced on social media that the Pentagon would accept the 747 from the Qatari royal family to replace Air Force One as a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE.” The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said in a statement, “Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency.”

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    John Cassidy

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  • Bessent Says ‘Tenfold’ Growth in Stablecoins Will Lift Demand for Treasurys

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    Bessent Says ‘Tenfold’ Growth in Stablecoins Will Lift Demand for Treasurys

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  • Crypto Bros’ Mistrial Was Such an ‘Emotional Burden’ for Deadlocked Jurors That ‘Half’ of Them Cried

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    In May of last year, two brothers in their 20s were arrested for what the Justice Department at the time called “attacking the Ethereum blockchain and stealing $25 million.” Attacking the blockchain does sound like a cool, sci-fi crime, but the brothers maintained that they were just aggressive traders, not criminals, and yesterday, their prosecution culminated in what sounds like a very stressful mistrial.

    The prosecution’s case was that Anton Peraire-Bueno and James Pepaire-Bueno set a trap that amounted to fraud. Prosecutors said they preyed upon crypto trading bots that moved digital money around on behalf of, apparently, three entities tied to actual human beings—although only one, David Yakira, ever came forward as an alleged victim. The trading bots were targeted because they were performing what are known as “sandwich transactions,” and were allegedly lured into situations that caused them to glitch out and release valuable tokens in exchange for, well, shitcoins.

    Then the brothers allegedly tried to launder their winnings.

    Performing digital muggings (allegedly!) on bots that perform sandwich transactions required extreme sophistication, and the ability to spot an exploit that wasn’t expressly forbidden in the Wild West universe that is crypto land.

    The nature of the scheme also seems like a bid for a Robin Hood-type vigilante reputation. Sandwich transactions are legal, but are perceived as parasitic arbitrage plays, or at the very least extremely irritating—essentially just gaming unsuspecting people’s transactions to set the price where the, if you will, sandwich artisan wants it in order to make a quick buck at the expense of a sucker with no recourse. In other words, it appears the brothers correctly predicted the rather nasty behavior of some bots, slipped in some sketchy code, and came away with $25 million.

    So were these brothers grifters, or just aggressive traders with what their lawyer called a very good “trading strategy”?

    According to Business Insider, the Pepaire-Bueno brothers faced a Manhattan jury specifically chosen to pry apart these fuzzy distinctions, with half of them holding masters degrees of one sort or another. “Almost all,” Business Insider noted, were either middle-aged or retirement-aged.

    Welp, in the course of a three week trial, that ambiguity was apparently not resolved to the unanimous satisfaction of the jury, and things sound like they got intense for this unhappy group of 12 people.

    According to Bloomberg’s account of the mistrial declaration, while an anonymous juror later explained that the facts of the case were not in dispute, at some point on Friday, the jury pleaded with the judge for help coming to a resolution. Some had lost “multiple nights” of sleep. Then later in the day, a note from the jury said that coming to a decision was placing them under an “emotional burden” and that half of the jurors had “spontaneously broken down in tears” while they were deliberating.

    So U.S. District Judge Jessica Clarke went ahead and declared a mistrial Friday.

    To be clear, a deadlocked jury doesn’t necessarily free the Peraire-Bueno brothers, but it is unwelcome news for prosecutors, who will naturally want to retry the brothers in the hopes of getting a conviction. But they do so with the burden of having already fought to a stalemate, which can’t be any better for morale than the fact that deliberating on the details of this highly technical case made a jury cry.

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    Mike Pearl

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  • The New Way to Make Money Online? Predict What Words a Person Will Say

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    In the hyper-capitalist world in which we live, it can often feel like anything and everything is at risk of being monetized. NFTs are just code-designated image files that—for whatever reason—are worth millions of dollars. The sharing economy encourages Americans to make money off the things they already own—their houses and cars. The influencer lifestyle lets people use social media to monetize their daily activities via highly curated posts. Now, the users of various prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi appear to be scraping the bottom of the monetization barrel. The newest way to make money online? Predicting the words a person will say.

    Yes, there is apparently a new way to make money online, and it is to accurately predict the words that a person will say during a speech or a live appearance. Bloomberg reports on this terrible/bizzare/hilarious new phenomenon, which it describes as “part of a niche category [of prediction market]” where the “outcome isn’t tied to earnings, price moves or sports games, but to what people say in some public forum.”

    Bloomberg notes a recent example of this involving Brian Armstrong, Coinbase’s CEO. During the company’s recent earnings call, Armstrong finished up by uttering a select number of DeFi terms: “I was a little distracted because I was tracking the prediction market about what Coinbase will say on their next earnings call,” Armstrong said at the end of the call. “I just want to add here the words Bitcoin, Ethereum, blockchain, staking, and Web3 — to make sure we get those in before the end of the call.”

    Bloomberg notes that, across various prediction market platforms, approximately $84,000 was bet on whether certain words like “stablecoin,” “margin,” and “institution,” would be spoken during the call.

    It’s unclear how widely this sort of thing is happening right now. A recent mention market post on Kalshi, for instance, revolved around whether Taylor Swift would say “Wedding” as part of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 6. Gizmodo reached out to Coinbase, Kalshi, and Polymarket. A Coinbase spokesperson told Bloomberg that its CEO’s comments were “made in a lighthearted, offhand way, referencing online discussion around the earnings call.”

     

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    Lucas Ropek

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  • Bitcoin Price Plunges as Crypto Traders Get Nervous About Future

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    Bitcoin plunged over 4% on Thursday, falling as low as $106,290, as crypto traders reacted to signals from both the Federal Reserve and President Donald Trump. In short, crypto world seems nervous about the future.

    Bitcoin hit a record high of $125,245 on Oct. 5, prompting many crypto optimists to make wild predictions that it could just continue to go up forever. But that line of thinking hasn’t worked out in recent weeks, especially after a flash crash two weeks ago that wiped out billions.

    The Federal Reserve announced interest rate cuts Wednesday, setting the benchmark short term rate between 3.75% and 4%, which the Wall Street Journal notes is the lowest in three years. That’s exactly what President Donald Trump had been asking for, as he’s pestered Powell to lower interest rates ever since the president’s second term started back in January.

    Traders liked the cuts, but Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell made some on Wall Street uneasy when he signaled that another rate cut was no guarantee when the Fed met again in December. “Far from it,” Powell said.

    President Trump’s meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping also weighed on crypto sentiment Thursday. Trump announced that tariffs on goods coming to the U.S. from China would be lowered, but they’re coming down just 10% from 57% to 47%.

    Trump has been seen by the crypto community as a positive force, making radical changes that have included scrapping the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET) at the Department of Justice which investigates crypto-related crimes. Typically, any market with honest brokers likes to have a cop on the beat to keep things fair and catch bad actors. But Trump is operating from a different perspective, allowing bad actors to flourish under an operating theory that might be known as “who gives a fuck, get yours.”

    Trump has also pardoned high-profile people convicted of crypto-related crimes, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht and most recently Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. While Zhao had already served his prison sentence, the pardon means that he probably won’t need to pay the $50 million he owes in restitution.

    Bitcoin’s price has recovered somewhat since its low for the day, bouncing back to $107,900 at the time of this writing. But that’s still down over 5% from where it was a month ago. Compared over a longer period of time, it certainly looks better. A year ago, bitcoin was trading at $68,500, a period just before the 2024 presidential election.

    Other cryptocurrencies also plunged Thursday, with Ethereum down 4.3%, BNB down 4%, XRP down 6.7%, and Solana  down 6.3%.

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    Matt Novak

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  • The Fed Slashed Rates. Here’s Why Crypto Prices Tumbled Anyway

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    The U.S. Federal Reserve announced a 25-basis-point rate cut on Wednesday, but crypto prices still slumped.

    A lower federal funds rate makes borrowing costs more affordable, stimulating financial activity. Rate cut announcements typically boost the prices of riskier assets.

    Neither crypto nor equities followed that script on Wednesday, however. A potential reason? In a speech following the announcement, Fed Chair Jerome Powell struck a more inflation-hawkish tone than expected when discussing the possibility of future cuts.

    “In the committee’s discussions at this meeting, there were strongly differing views about how to proceed in December,” Powell explained. “A further reduction in the policy rate at the December meeting is not a foregone conclusion. Far from it. Policy is not on a preset course.”

    His comments undercut the expectations of traders: On Tuesday, the CME Group’s FedWatch tool, which tracks 30-Day Fed Funds futures prices, estimated there was a 90.5% chance the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) would slash the policy rate by another 25 basis points at its next meeting in December. That probability plunged to around 65% after Powell’s speech.

    The overall crypto market cap dipped by 0.8% on Wednesday, with Bitcoin dropping by 1.3%, per data from CoinGecko. The S&P 500 tracked sideways.

    In his speech, Powell said downside risks to employment had increased, justifying the FOMC’s step towards a more neutral policy stance this week. The Fed chair also noted that longer-term inflation expectations remain consistent with the Fed’s 2% goal, though he acknowledged that the Trump Administration’s tariffs could impact that trajectory.

    “Higher tariffs are pushing up prices in some categories of goods, resulting in higher overall inflation,” Powell said. “A reasonable base case is that the effects on inflation will be relatively short-lived — a one-time shift in the price level. But it is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent, and that is a risk to be assessed and managed. Our obligation is to ensure that a one-time increase in the price level does not become an ongoing inflation problem.”

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    Conor King Devitt

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  • Tether Taps Trump’s Former Crypto Advisor to Lead US Operations

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    In an effort to solidify itself as the go-to company in the cryptocurrency space for stablecoins, Tether is tapping Bo Hines, the former Executive Director of Donald Trump’s White House Crypto Council to lead its operations in the United States, including efforts to launch a new stablecoin called USAT that will comply with new, Trump-backed regulations, according to CNBC.

    Tether is best known for its USDT stablecoin, which is pegged to the US Dollar and has become the most commonly used token for exchanging cryptocurrencies. USAT will reportedly be its effort to launch a stablecoin that is fully compliant with the recently passed GENIUS Act, an industry-friendly law that regulates the operations of stablecoins.

    It shouldn’t be hard for the company to remain in compliance with Hines at the helm of its US operations, given that he was reportedly instrumental in getting the bill across the finish line and signed into law. Earlier this month, Hines said on Twitter that the GENIUS Act “is about securing the future of American finance,” and said stablecoins “strengthen U.S. dollar dominance, modernize our outdated payment rails, and give Americans faster, cheaper, and more transparent ways to move money.” Which, okay, here’s a simple test to find out if that is true: Try to get your parents set up with Zelle or Venmo, then try to get them set up with a crypto wallet and see which one they find easier to use.

    Anyway, it’s a pretty sweet gig for Hines, who has mostly served as a Trump orbiter who just keeps failing up. Before landing his role as the Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets, he lost two elections in North Carolina that were reportedly funded primarily by his own trust fund. In August, after getting the GENIUS Act over the finish line, Hines left the White House for the private sector, where he apparently knew he had lots of job offers waiting for him—probably because the crypto space is not shy about sucking up to the Trump administration.

    This also probably marks the end of any regulatory scrutiny for Tether, which has repeatedly gotten itself in hot water in the United States. The company got subpoenaed in 2018 as its alleged treasury holdings were disputed, paid to settle a fraud investigation in 2021, and was subject to money laundering investigations in 2024. The company has also repeatedly come under fire for failing to comply with regulatory requirements, maintaining a shockingly small team that seemed incapable of sufficiently ensuring rules were being followed. But with a Trump ally at the helm of its American operations, it seems likely that any scrutiny will suddenly lighten up going forward.

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    AJ Dellinger

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  • Is There a Hidden Agenda Behind These New Crypto Laws? | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Recent crypto laws have sparked debate about their true political motivations. The GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, represents the cornerstone of the administration’s cryptocurrency strategy.

    Officially, the initiative aims to remove excessive administrative barriers and legalize stablecoins – crypto assets backed by real American assets: dollars, treasury bonds or gold.

    According to legislators, these coins should simplify transactions and position the United States as a global leader in digital finance. The administration has framed this legislation as part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance financial innovation while maintaining America’s economic leadership.

    Understanding cryptocurrency laws in the U.S. requires looking beyond official narratives. The stablecoin market, currently valued at over $260 billion, is projected to reach $2 trillion by 2028 under this new regulatory framework. This explosive growth will fundamentally alter the financial landscape in ways that may not align with stated objectives.

    Related: The Hidden Problems That Could Threaten Crypto’s Future

    Who regulates crypto in the U.S.?

    The question of who regulates cryptocurrency in the U.S. is becoming complex under the new legislation. The hidden agenda behind these laws appears to be weakening the Federal Reserve System’s control. As a reminder, the Fed, established in 1913, consists of twelve regional reserve banks and is considered a private structure independent of executive power.

    The prerogative of issuing “national money” is firmly secured by the Fed, and attempts to interfere with its powers have invariably met with strong opposition. Understanding who regulates cryptocurrency in the U.S. reveals the political power struggle behind recent laws.

    The new stablecoin law represents a half-measure, as it cannot solve the task of creating an alternative digital central bank. Instead, it allows private players to issue their own “money” backed by government securities, effectively fragmenting the Fed’s monopoly on emission.

    Read More: People Really Only Care About These 3 Things at Work — Do You Offer Them?

    Stablecoin influence as a tool for political influence

    New stablecoin regulation allows private entities to issue currency-like assets backed by government securities. This represents a significant departure from traditional monetary policy, where currency issuance is tightly controlled by central banking authorities.

    The approach to stablecoin regulation may fragment the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on currency issuance. By allowing private entities to create dollar-backed digital assets, the legislation effectively creates a parallel monetary system that operates under different rules and oversight.

    Critics argue that current stablecoin regulation could create a shadow emission system outside traditional controls. This system could potentially undermine the Fed’s ability to implement monetary policy effectively and respond to economic crises.

    Related: Why Institutional Investors Are Embracing Crypto–TradFi Partnerships

    The political agenda driving recent legislation

    The cryptocurrency political agenda behind recent legislation extends beyond promoting innovation. As a result, the U.S. economic system risks losing part of its budget revenues and deviating from its usual course. Businesses, having received the right to issue and use stablecoins, may begin to evade tax control and the stablecoins themselves, under unfavorable regulation, will depreciate and lose trust.

    To understand the politics around crypto, you have to look at the power struggles between government institutions. Hidden money printing creates slower growth and shaky forecasts, which is risky in an election year when political pressure is already high.

    Some in the crypto space even push for reducing the Federal Reserve’s control over monetary policy — a major change to the financial system that has shaped the U.S. for more than 100 years.

    The potential consequences of these hidden agenda crypto laws include:

    • Budget Revenue Loss: Reduced tax collection from cryptocurrency transactions compared to traditional financial operations.
    • Monetary Policy Fragmentation: Multiple entities issuing dollar-backed assets could complicate coordinated monetary policy.
    • Financial Stability Risks: A parallel financial system with different rules could introduce new systemic risks.
    • Political Power Shifts: Reduction in Federal Reserve independence and increased executive branch influence over monetary policy.
    • Economic Uncertainty: Potential for market volatility and reduced predictability during political transitions.

    Analysts are questioning whether Trump’s crypto ventures are designed to weaken Federal Reserve control. The legislation creates a framework where private entities can issue dollar-backed assets with potentially less oversight than traditional banking institutions.

    The Trump administration has framed its cryptocurrency laws as forward-looking reforms designed to position the U.S. as a leader in digital finance. But beneath that narrative lies a more complex political agenda. The legislation could reduce the Federal Reserve’s influence over monetary policy, introduce alternative currency-like instruments with favorable tax treatment and shift power among key financial institutions.

    Related: This Trillion-Dollar Industry Is Where You Need to Look For Your Next Investment — Here’s Why

    The full impact will only become clear over time. What is certain is that the effects will extend well beyond cryptocurrency markets, with the potential to reshape core elements of America’s financial and political order. The central question is whether these changes will bolster or weaken U.S. economic stability and global leadership. Understanding the implications requires looking past official narratives to the shifting power dynamics they conceal — only then can we judge whether the reforms serve the public good or narrower political aims.

    Recent crypto laws have sparked debate about their true political motivations. The GENIUS Act, signed on July 18, 2025, represents the cornerstone of the administration’s cryptocurrency strategy.

    Officially, the initiative aims to remove excessive administrative barriers and legalize stablecoins – crypto assets backed by real American assets: dollars, treasury bonds or gold.

    According to legislators, these coins should simplify transactions and position the United States as a global leader in digital finance. The administration has framed this legislation as part of a comprehensive strategy to enhance financial innovation while maintaining America’s economic leadership.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Vladimir Gorbunov

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  • Regulators Say Binance Must Tighten Money Laundering, Terrorism Rules

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    Beleaguered crypto company Binance must tighten up its compliance controls covering anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism and add an independent auditor if it wants to keep doing business in Australia, regulators said this week.

    The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) is mandating the crypto giant put outside auditors in place within 28 days of its decision. The watchdog said that the new rules are intended to address “serious concerns” it has about its oversight of illegal activity, which AUSTRAC says is “limited in scope relative to its size, business offerings, and risks.”

    The regulator said Binance’s most recent internal review found a lack of oversight by senior management within Binance Australia, as well as a lot of employee churn that has resulted in high staff turnover, inadequate local resources, and the need for an outside monitor.

    As part of the decision, AUSTRAC will be the one to pick which independent auditor to install at Binance, though the company can provide the list of potential names.

    Binance is familiar with regulatory actions

    It’s not the first time that Binance has tangled with regulators. Founder Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty and was fined $4.3 billion 2023 by the U.S. Department of Justice on charges that included anti-money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, and sanctions violations.

    The authorities said at the time that Binance had created a corporate culture that put profit above consumer protections, which it highlighted in internal communications found during a probe of the company.

    “As one compliance employee wrote, “we need a banner ‘is washing drug money too hard these days – come to binance we got cake for you,’” the DOJ said in its statement about the settlement.

    Binance faces a tough road in Australia

    The crypto exchange also faces an increasingly restrictive regulatory landscape in Australia, which recently cracked down on Binance Australia Derivatives in a 2024 lawsuit.

    That suit was brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and resulted in Binance losing its derivatives license in the country because of its risk management shortcomings and limited compliance (ASIC).

    “Big global operators may appear well resourced and positioned to meet complex regulatory requirements, but if they don’t understand local money laundering and terrorism financing risks, they are failing [to meet their obligations to consumers],” Brendan Thomas, chief executive officer of Austrac, said in a statement.

    Binance also had to shut down its Australian dollar trading services earlier this year because its payment provider, Zepto, ended their partnership. That followed an earlier clash with Cuscal, a service provider who had helped it provide banking services, cut off access to its platform.

    “Understanding specific risks of criminality in the Australian context is crucial to ensure they’re meeting their reporting obligations here,” Thomas said.

    What does Binance say?

    “We have engaged openly and transparently with Austrac over the past several months and continue to value their guidance, expertise, and oversight,” Matt Poblocki, general manager of Binance Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement. “We remain committed to maintaining best-in-class compliance standards and will continuously enhance our capabilities.”

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    Riley Gutiérrez McDermid

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  • South Korean man arrested in Thailand in $50 million crypto scam

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    A South Korean man was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday, accused of laundering over $50 million worth of cryptocurrency into physical gold bars in the span of just three months.

    The man, identified by Thai authorities only as “Han,” was allegedly a key figure in a call-center fraud network that lured victims in with promises of 30-50% returns on investment. Authorities say the victims were paid off initially in small amounts to build trust before they started facing withdrawal limits later on.

    Meanwhile, Han allegedly amassed 47.3 million in Tether, a stablecoin tied to the value of the U.S. dollar. He allegedly used the digital funds to purchase gold bars, each weighing more than 10 kilograms or 22 pounds, with each transaction worth more than $1 million.

    Police said the gold bars were used to convert the illicit crypto funds into a tangible commodity that the scammers could move across borders without being detected.

    After victims started filing complaints, the Thai Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Han and his operatives in February. Eleven people, including Han, have been arrested so far with involvement in the scam, according to Thai media.

    Thai police apprehend Han at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, and are charging him with fraud, impersonation, computer crimes, money laundering, and participation in a criminal syndicate.

    Victims around the world lost a whopping $10.7 billion to crypto scams in 2024, according to blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs data. The report found that global crypto scams overall were up 456% over the past year. Experts advise people to use caution in their approach to cryptocurrency or even to avoid it altogether.

    Crypto has particularly turbocharged cross-border scams: the borderless, instantaneous, and anonymous nature of crypto transactions facilitates these criminal operations, while the deals evade the usual regulatory oversight of other cross-border financial transactions.

    Thailand is betting big on crypto

    The news also comes as the Thai government makes a huge bet on crypto in hopes to revamp its tourism industry.

    Earlier this week, Thailand announced an 18-month pilot program that would allow tourists to convert crypto into the local currency, the Thai baht, via Thai-based crypto exchange platforms to make payments to local businesses.

    The Thai Finance Ministry said that they will be capping the conversions at 550,000 baht, roughly equal to almost $17 thousand to prevent money laundering, Reuters reported.

    Han’s home country of South Korea is also no stranger to multi-million dollar cryptocurrency investment scams. Just less than a year ago, South Korean police arrested more than 200 people for stealing more than $228 million in a crypto scam that has since been deemed the largest in the country’s history.

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    Ece Yildirim

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  • People Are Using Memecoins to Bet on the US Election

    People Are Using Memecoins to Bet on the US Election

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    On July 13, as word spread that a would-be assassin had narrowly missed killing Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, a trading frenzy began. Within an hour of the shooting, the price of TRUMP, a cryptocurrency inspired by the former president, had jumped up by more than a third, from $6.34 to $8.69. The memecoin was, in effect, a bellwether for the upcoming US election.

    Tens of political memecoins have been created within the past year; there also are coins modeled after high-profile politicians such as Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. They share an iconography and naming convention: The politicians are typically represented by unflattering caricatures and their names are deliberately misspelled (instead of Joe Biden, it’s “Jeo Boden”), in homage to an influential meme comic from the 2010s.

    Beyond financial speculation, the coins serve no purpose and promise no utility, but over the course of the US presidential election campaign, their market performance has correlated with the political fortunes of the individuals they depict.

    Just as the price of TRUMP rose in the wake of the assassination attempt, an event that commentators had predicted would bolster his chances of reelection, the price of KAMA, the Harris-themed coin, more than tripled after Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, paving the way for the vice president to become the Democratic nominee. Likewise, on June 27, the day of Biden’s disastrous CNN debate performance, the price of BODEN fell by half.

    In the US, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a financial regulator, has refused to allow gambling platforms to offer bets on election results. It is explicitly illegal under the laws of numerous states for residents to place those kinds of bets, too. But buying into political memecoins has become a loose proxy—one that comes, courtesy of the violent swings in price typical of crypto markets, with both increased risk and potential reward. In aggregate, hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of political memecoins are currently changing hands every day.

    “An investment in a political memecoin isn’t an endorsement or badge of support,” says Rennick Palley, founding partner at investment firm Stratos, whose hedge fund holds memecoins in its portfolio. “The majority of people look at it as a fun way to bet on what is going to happen. If I wanted to speculate on who is going to win, memecoins are clearly the way to do it for maximum risk and maximum upside.”

    The debate over whether betting on elections should be legalized in the US extends back decades, but is currently playing out in the US court system. In September, the CFTC denied an application by Kalshi, a New York–based company that runs a market for betting on the outcome of events, to let customers wager on which party would control the two chambers of Congress, which the regulator described as “contrary to the public interest.”

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    Joel Khalili

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  • Donald Trump Backs ‘Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile’ in Speech to Crypto Faithful

    Donald Trump Backs ‘Strategic Bitcoin Stockpile’ in Speech to Crypto Faithful

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    Former president Donald Trump outlined a plan to turbocharge crypto growth and make the US a crypto mining powerhouse in his keynote address to the 2024 Nashville Bitcoin Conference on Saturday.

    Trump announced that if elected, he would create a strategic bitcoin reserve in the US. “It will be the policy of my administration to keep 100 percent of all bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires in the future … as a core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” he said.

    Right now, the US government owns more than 210,000 bitcoins that were seized via illegal operations like the online dark market Silk Road and the ponzi scheme BitConnect. It’s worth approximately $14 billion at time of writing.

    This move confirmed rumors spread by bitcoin enthusiasts who are hopeful that endorsement of a reserve from Trump could bolster the price of the cryptocurrency.

    Trump also announced plans to appoint a bitcoin and crypto advisory council, whose task would be to “design transparent regulatory guidance to the benefit of your industry” in the first 100 days of his next presidency. He said he wanted the US to become the “crypto capital of the world.”

    Trump also pledged to create a framework for ensuring the safe expansion of stablecoins, “allowing us to extend the dominance of the USD to other places around the world,” and doubled down on his vow to scrap any effort to create a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) or digital dollar, saying “there will never be a CBDC while I’m president of the United States.”

    “I will always defend the right to self-custody,” he told the exultant crowd. What got perhaps the biggest cheer was a day one promise to fire Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler.

    “The moment I am sworn in, the persecution stops and the weaponization against your industry ends,” he said, name-checking Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts as the industry’s sworn enemy.

    He promised to make regulations friendly to crypto mining operations in the US, so workers wouldn’t have to “move to China.” Trump promised, again, to free Ross Ulbricht, imprisoned for life for his involvement with online underground market Silk Road, where people could buy items like illegal drugs before it was shut down in 2013.

    The crowd expected the bitcoin strategic reserve announcement. On July 22, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming posted “Big things … in store this week” on X, two days before Fox Business reported she would “announce legislation for a strategic bitcoin reserve” at the conference.

    Lummis appeared before the crowd just after Trump walked off to announce a “present to President Donald Trump”: the bitcoin reserve bill she’d been drafting.

    “This is our Louisiana Purchase moment,” she said, elaborating that the bill would take “the bitcoin President Trump just mentioned and pull it into the reserve—[and] that’s only the beginning.”

    “Over five years, the United States will assemble 1 million bitcoin,” she added, “Five percent of the world’s bitcoin, and it will be held for a minimum of 20 years and can be used for one purpose—reduce our debt.”

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    Jessica Klein

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  • Ethereum Seen Hitting $5,000 as Bitcoin Sell-off Shakes Market

    Ethereum Seen Hitting $5,000 as Bitcoin Sell-off Shakes Market

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    Ethereum has shown some degree of resilience in the face of heavy volatility in the broader crypto landscape, keeping ground above the $3,000 barrier in a week when Bitcoin stumbled under the weight of German economic policies.

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    Ether hodlers are keenly observing as the terrain of digital currencies undergoes notable changes; many of them are focusing on a possible $5,000 milestone.

    A Test Of The Market

    There were tremors felt in the cryptocurrency market when the German government decided to sell about 5,000 BTC, or 90% of its Bitcoin holdings. As Bitcoin struggled to maintain values over $57,000, Ethereum showed remarkable resilience, remaining consistently above $3,000.

    Both experts in the field and investors have noticed this difference in performance, and now people are anticipating how resistant Ethereum is to market forces in the coming days or weeks.

    If Ethereum stays secure during this uncertain time, it could mean that it is no longer affected by changes in the Bitcoin market. This would have huge effects on the entire cryptocurrency business.

    Ethereum is now trading at $3,185. Chart: TradingView

    ETF Anticipation Drives Positive Mood

    In the wake of the German Bitcoin selloffs, the broader crypto community is humming with expectation over the possible approval of an Ethereum ETF. If this event comes to fruition, Ethereum might reach a major turning point in terms of heavy institutional investments.

    The possibility of an ETH ETF has given the market some hope as many people are guessing on significant price increase. Still, the effect of such an approval is unknown, hence investors should approach these changes warily.

    Price Forecast and Technical Analysis

    Although many analysts see Ethereum’s price soaring, the technical indicators show a more complex picture of ETH’s existing situation even if optimistic forecasts abound.

    A well-known cryptocurrency expert, CryptoPatel sees Ethereum as having a bright future, predicting that its price will continue to grow and may soon reach $5,000. His findings revealed significant levels of support and resistance, both of which would have an impact on the movement of ETH in the future.

    According to his observations, the green box represents a significant support zone that extends between $2,800 and $3,000. Maintaining this support level is essential to the optimistic projection for the price of the top altcoin. It is possible that Ethereum could be on track to hit $5,000 if it continues to move solidly within this green band.

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    Meanwhile, according to figures provided by crypto prediction platform CoinCodex, Ether will have risen by 3.68% by August 13, 2024.

    The fear/greed index, on the other hand, shows some negative vibes. Last month, Ethereum had 50% green days. Because of these signs, experts say that you shouldn’t buy anything right now.

    These conflicting signals make it hard to predict how the altcoin will behave in the next coming weeks or months. The market is cautious, but there are hints that things will improve in the future.

    Featured image from Flow, chart from TradingView

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    Christian Encila

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  • This Is The Biggest Issue With Altcoins This Cycle: Crypto Analyst

    This Is The Biggest Issue With Altcoins This Cycle: Crypto Analyst

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    In a thread on X, Miles Deutscher, a renowned figure in the crypto analysis sector, has dissected what he views as a critical flaw in the current altcoin market. Addressing his extensive following, Deutscher elaborated on the impact of the rapid increase in the number of new crypto tokens, an issue he believes to be at the core of the altcoins’ underperformance in this cycle.

    The Proliferation Of Crypto

    Since April 2024, the crypto landscape has witnessed the introduction of over 1 million new crypto tokens, with a notable half of these being memecoins created primarily on the Solana network. According to Deutscher, the ease of deploying these tokens on-chain contributes to an inflated token count but highlights a deeper issue of market saturation and dilution.

    Deutscher elaborates, “We now have 5.7 times the amount of crypto tokens than we did during peak bull in 2021. This is a major reason why crypto has been struggling this year, despite Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs.” He likens the excessive issuance of new tokens to inflation, where “the more tokens that launch, the more cumulative supply pressure on the market.”

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    The analyst also sheds light on the dynamics of venture capital (VC) investments in the crypto space, noting the largest quarter for VC funding peaked at $12 billion in Q1 2022, just as the market began to turn bearish. Deutscher criticizes the timing and strategy of VCs, suggesting that while their capital injection is essential for project development, it often leads to market imbalances.

    “VCs, like retail investors, are opportunists. Their investment timing often aims to maximize returns rather than support sustainable project growth, contributing to cyclical peaks and troughs in the market,” Deutscher explains. He continues to discuss the subsequent market effects, where projects delay launches in unfavorable conditions, only to flood the market when sentiment turns, worsening the dilution.

    The constant introduction of new tokens not only strains the market’s liquidity but also affects investor confidence, especially among retail investors. Deutscher emphasizes, “The skew towards private markets is one of the biggest and most damaging issues in crypto, especially compared to other markets like equities and real estate.”

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    This environment creates a barrier to entry for new liquidity and leaves retail investors feeling sidelined, a sentiment exacerbated by high-profile failures like LUNA and FTX. Deutscher argues, “If retail investors feel like they can’t win, they won’t play the game, which is why memes have dominated this year—it’s the only meta where retail feels like they have a fighting chance.”

    Looking forward, Deutscher proposes several strategies to mitigate these issues. Exchanges could enforce better token distribution standards and prioritize larger community allocations. Additionally, adjusting the percentage of tokens unlocked at launch could help manage sell pressure more effectively.

    “Even if the insiders don’t enforce change, the market eventually will,” Deutscher asserts. He suggests that exchanges should adopt rigorous standards for listing new projects and be equally stringent about delisting those that fail to meet ongoing criteria, thus preserving market integrity and liquidity.

    In his closing remarks, Miles Deutscher hopes his insights will foster better understanding and prompt a reevaluation of current practices. “Dispersion isn’t the only problem, but it certainly is a major one—and something that needs to be discussed more openly to foster a healthier crypto ecosystem.”

    At press time, Ethereum (ETH) traded at $3,562.

    Ether price holds above the 0.618 Fib, 1-week chart | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

    Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

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    Jake Simmons

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  • Crypto Guru Unveils Best Altcoins To Buy Now

    Crypto Guru Unveils Best Altcoins To Buy Now

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    In a recently published video titled “Best Altcoins To Buy Now,” crypto influencer Lark Davis shared his latest insights on promising altcoins with his 546,000 YouTube subscribers. Known for his candid and straightforward approach, Davis emphasized the speculative nature of his recommendations and the inherent risks of crypto investments.

    Davis began by acknowledging Bitcoin’s role as the premier digital store of value, noting that while it remains the most secure asset in the crypto space, it is unlikely to deliver the high returns that some altcoins can offer. “If you’re after life-changing gains, then you have to risk life and limb in the altcoin jungle,” Davis remarked, underscoring the potential of altcoins to yield substantial returns, albeit with significant risks. He pointed out that Bitcoin, while being a solid choice for wealth preservation, probably won’t deliver 100x or even 10x returns in the near future.

    The approval of spot Ethereum ETFs is a significant development that Davis believes will bring attention to other altcoin projects, setting the stage for a broader “altcoin season.” He acknowledged that while memecoins often gain the most attention during these times, other projects with real utility deserve closer scrutiny. Davis expressed his intent to highlight coins with actual use cases, as these have better chances of surviving market cycles and potentially achieving long-term success.

    Best Altcoins To Buy Now

    The first altcoin Davis highlighted is Jupiter (JUP), a decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator built on the Solana blockchain. Jupiter stands out due to its ability to consistently offer the best token prices by aggregating data from multiple exchanges. Davis emphasized the importance of Jupiter’s user-friendly interface, which simplifies the onboarding process for new users entering the DeFi space. This ease of use, combined with Solana’s recent popularity driven by memecoins, positions Jupiter as a key gateway for traders looking to capitalize on emerging trends.

    Davis detailed Jupiter’s significant trading volumes, noting that it frequently surpasses Uniswap. In March and April, Jupiter achieved $47 billion and $35 billion in trading volume, respectively. He highlighted Jupiter’s perpetual exchange feature, which offers up to 100x leverage, as a significant attraction for traders seeking substantial gains. Moreover, Jupiter’s staking rewards model incentivizes participation in project governance, providing stakeholders with additional benefits such as incentivized tokens, launchpad fees, and airdrops. Davis mentioned Jupiter’s plans to expand into the forex and stock markets, which could further enhance its utility and market position.

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    Next on Davis’s list is Aerodrome (AERO), a DEX operating on Coinbase’s Base ecosystem. Davis underscored the strategic advantage of having Coinbase, with its extensive user base of over 120 million, backing the Base ecosystem. This support, combined with the upcoming introduction of smart wallets to simplify user onboarding, gives Aerodrome a significant edge. Although there is no native token for the Base ecosystem yet, Davis believes Aerodrome’s token could serve as a viable alternative, benefiting from its role as a major DeFi platform within the ecosystem.

    Davis pointed out Aerodrome’s impressive total value locked (TVL) of around $700 million and a market cap of approximately $500 million. He suggested that as more Coinbase users engage with the Base ecosystem, the Aero token could see substantial appreciation. Davis revealed that he has increased his holdings in Aerodrome, confident that the platform’s growth potential aligns with his investment strategy.

    Davis also discussed SubSquid (SQD), describing it as the “Google of blockchains.” SubSquid is a comprehensive blockchain indexing solution designed to facilitate quick and cost-effective access to on-chain data. Davis explained that SubSquid acts like a decentralized filing cabinet, organizing data from multiple blockchains to enable developers to build decentralized applications (dApps) without the burden of slow queries. Supporting over 100 networks and utilized by more than 5,000 dApps, SubSquid offers a robust infrastructure for blockchain development.

    With a total token supply of 1.34 billion and a market cap of around $21 million, SubSquid presents a compelling investment opportunity, according to Davis. He compared SubSquid’s market position to that of The Graph (GRT), which boasts a market cap of $3 billion, suggesting that SubSquid has significant room for growth. Davis mentioned his participation in SubSquid’s private sale and his current holding strategy, watching for the project’s development and market performance.

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    The Oasis Network (ROSE), a layer-1 blockchain focused on privacy and scalability, was another recommendation. Davis highlighted its unique two-layer architecture, which separates consensus and smart contract execution to enhance privacy and scalability. This structure makes Oasis suitable for applications in finance, artificial intelligence (AI), and the metaverse. Davis emphasized the importance of privacy in blockchain applications, especially for attracting institutional users. He likened Oasis’s approach to Polkadot’s independent parachains and Avalanche’s subnet infrastructure.

    Davis pointed out Oasis’s robust ecosystem fund, supported by prominent investors such as Binance Labs, Pantera Capital, and Jump Capital. The network’s ongoing rebrand aims to emphasize its focus on decentralized AI, aligning with current market narratives. Collaborations with projects like the Ocean Protocol and the involvement of notable figures in AI further bolster Oasis’s credibility and potential. The native token, ROSE, has a market cap of around $600 million and a maximum supply of 10 billion coins. Davis disclosed that he acquired a significant amount of ROSE during the bear market and continues to monitor the project’s progress.

    Finally, Davis discussed Fantom (FTM), a layer-1 blockchain designed to challenge Ethereum’s dominance. He highlighted the upcoming Sonic upgrade, which will transform Fantom into a new blockchain, replacing the original. This rebrand, accompanied by technical enhancements, could drive significant interest and investment in Fantom. Davis praised Sonic’s impressive transaction speed of 2,000 transactions per second and sub-second finality, noting that these features position Fantom as a strong contender in the blockchain space.

    Davis revealed that he secured a substantial position in Fantom through an OTC deal and later doubled his holdings by purchasing more on Binance. He emphasized the potential of the Sonic upgrade to attract attention and investment, driven by the involvement of popular developer Andre Cronje. With on-chain statistics improving and renewed interest in the Fantom ecosystem, Davis remains optimistic about its prospects.

    In closing, Davis reminded viewers of the speculative nature of crypto investments and the importance of conducting thorough research. “Just because I like these coins doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed to succeed,” he cautioned. Davis’s insights reflect the dynamic and high-risk environment of the cryptocurrency market, where informed decision-making is crucial.

    At press time, JUP traded at $1.0977.

    Jupiter price hovers above the 0.236 Fib, 1-day chart | Source: JUPUSD on TradingView.com

    Featured image created with DALL·E, chart from TradingView.com

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    Jake Simmons

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