ReportWire

Tag: Cryptocurrency

  • Crypto mogul Do Kwon to be sentenced for misleading investors who lost billions

    NEW YORK — Cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for misleading investors who lost billions when his company’s crypto ecosystem collapsed in 2022.

    Kwon, known by some as “the cryptocurrency king,” pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court in August to fraud charges stemming from Terraform Labs’ $40 billion crash.

    The company had touted its TerraUSD as a reliable “stablecoin” — a kind of currency typically pegged to stable assets to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices. But prosecutors say it was all an illusion that came crumbling down, devastating investors and triggering “a cascade of crises that swept through cryptocurrency markets.”

    Kwon, who hails from South Korea, has agreed to forfeit over $19 million as part of the plea deal.

    While federal sentencing guidelines would recommend a prison term of about 25 years, prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Kwon to 12 years. They cited his guilty plea, the fact that he faces further prosecution in Korea and that he has already served time in Montenegro while awaiting extradition.

    “Kwon’s fraud was colossal in scope, permeating virtually every facet of Terraform’s purported business,” prosecutors wrote in a recent memo to the judge. “His rampant lies left a trail of financial destruction in their wake.”

    Kwon’s attorneys asked that the sentence not exceed five years, arguing in their own memo that his conduct stemmed not from greed, but hubris and desperation.

    In a letter to the judge, Kwon wrote, “I alone am responsible for everyone’s pain. The community looked to me to know the path, and I in my hubris led them astray,” while adding, “I made misrepresentations that came from a brashness that is now a source of deep regret.”

    Authorities said investors worldwide lost money in the downfall of the Singapore crypto firm, which Kwon co-founded in 2018. Around $40 billion in market value was erased for the holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister currency, Luna, after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg.

    Kwon was extradited to the U.S. from Montenegro after his March 23, 2023, arrest while traveling on a false passport in Europe.

    Source link

  • Crypto Mogul Do Kwon to Be Sentenced for Misleading Investors Who Lost Billions in Stablecoin Crash

    NEW YORK (AP) — Cryptocurrency mogul Do Kwon is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday for misleading investors who lost billions when his company’s crypto ecosystem collapsed in 2022.

    Kwon, known by some as “the cryptocurrency king,” pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court in August to fraud charges stemming from Terraform Labs’ $40 billion crash.

    The company had touted its TerraUSD as a reliable “stablecoin” — a kind of currency typically pegged to stable assets to prevent drastic fluctuations in prices. But prosecutors say it was all an illusion that came crumbling down, devastating investors and triggering “a cascade of crises that swept through cryptocurrency markets.”

    Kwon, who hails from South Korea, has agreed to forfeit over $19 million as part of the plea deal.

    While federal sentencing guidelines would recommend a prison term of about 25 years, prosecutors have asked the court to sentence Kwon to 12 years. They cited his guilty plea, the fact that he faces further prosecution in Korea and that he has already served time in Montenegro while awaiting extradition.

    “Kwon’s fraud was colossal in scope, permeating virtually every facet of Terraform’s purported business,” prosecutors wrote in a recent memo to the judge. “His rampant lies left a trail of financial destruction in their wake.”

    Kwon’s attorneys asked that the sentence not exceed five years, arguing in their own memo that his conduct stemmed not from greed, but hubris and desperation.

    In a letter to the judge, Kwon wrote, “I alone am responsible for everyone’s pain. The community looked to me to know the path, and I in my hubris led them astray,” while adding, “I made misrepresentations that came from a brashness that is now a source of deep regret.”

    Authorities said investors worldwide lost money in the downfall of the Singapore crypto firm, which Kwon co-founded in 2018. Around $40 billion in market value was erased for the holders of TerraUSD and its floating sister currency, Luna, after the stablecoin plunged far below its $1 peg.

    Kwon was extradited to the U.S. from Montenegro after his March 23, 2023, arrest while traveling on a false passport in Europe.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Photos You Should See – December 2025

    Associated Press

    Source link

  • What Happens When an “Infinite-Money Machine” Unravels

    The price of bitcoin, which more than doubled last year in a trend that many attributed to the “Trump trade,” obviously played a big role in this alchemy, but there was also another factor—one that did seem a little magical, or insane, depending on your viewpoint. As MicroStrategy expanded its purchases, eventually accumulating more than three per cent of all the bitcoins in existence, its purchases helped drive the price of the digital currency higher. But—and this is the magical bit—its stock price went up even faster than bitcoin did. Toward the end of last year, investors were valuing MicroStrategy at more than two times what its bitcoins were worth, which meant that, for every dollar the company invested in bitcoin, it was creating more than two dollars in value. Some observers labelled Saylor’s bitcoin strategy as an “infinite-money machine,” or an “infinite-money glitch.”

    Whatever you called it, the gap between MicroStrategy’s market value and the value of its bitcoins couldn’t be explained by the company’s non-digital assets, namely its original software businesses. Saylor’s supporters offered two explanations for why MicroStrategy was still a worthy investment. First, the price of Bitcoin could rise a lot further; Saylor claimed that, by 2045, it would reach thirteen million dollars. Second, MicroStrategy had found clever ways to amplify gains for regular shareholders. By issuing preferred stock and debt that could be converted into shares at a later date, and then using the proceeds to buy more bitcoins, MicroStrategy said it could give holders of its common stock “amplified exposure” to the cryptocurrency. Another term for this was leverage—using borrowed money to boost returns. Some skeptics, including the professional short seller Jim Chanos, questioned whether this strategy could last, but his warnings didn’t catch on at the time. This past February, MicroStrategy unveiled its latest financial results, and a rebrand. “Earlier today, we announced that we are now Strategy, a new name that powerfully and succinctly conveys the universal and global appeal of our company.”

    Hubris precedes the fall. After Strategy’s stock peaked above $450 in mid-July, it went into an extended nosedive and ended November trading at $177.18. That wasn’t the only bad news for Saylor and his believers. As Strategy’s stock fell by sixty per cent, the price of bitcoin fell by only twenty-five per cent. This meant that the spread between Strategy’s market capitalization and the value of the bitcoins that it owned was closing. By the end of last month, that premium had all but disappeared, and at one point last week the market value of Strategy dipped below the value of its bitcoins (after accounting for its debt). In the words of a columnist at Bloomberg, Saylor’s infinite money machine was “glitching out.”

    Recognizing the severity of the situation and hoping to reassure investors, Strategy announced that it had built up, by selling even more stock, a “dollar reserve” of $1.4 billion. It could use this to make required dividend payments to holders of its preferred stock over the next twelve months. (Regular shareholders don’t get a dividend.) But it also said that, if its value continued to sink below the value of bitcoin, it might sell some of its coins—a previously unthinkable move for an evangelist like Saylor, who in February of this year tweeted, “Never sell your Bitcoin.” If Strategy was forced to unload some of its bitcoins, that could conceivably send the cryptocurrency, and the firm’s stock, into another dive.

    Strategy is now facing another challenge: the possibility that its stock could be removed from a major stock index, the MSCI Index, which analysts at JPMorgan estimated could lead to outflows of billions of dollars. On a more hopeful note, the price of bitcoin has risen over the past couple of weeks on expectations that the Federal Reserve is about to cut interest rates and pump more money into the financial system. In the past, some analysts noted, there has been a correlation between the Fed’s monetary interventions and rallies in bitcoin. So it seems at least possible that Jerome Powell and his colleagues, who are focussed on preventing a recession, will inadvertently bail out the crypto bros, Saylor included.

    Even if this happens, though, Strategy may well struggle to repeat its earlier success. The market opening that Saylor spotted back in 2020 has been largely filled. Dozens of other public companies, including MARA Holdings, a bitcoin-mining company, and Trump Media & Technology Group have acquired substantial holdings of bitcoin. And, for investors wanting direct exposure to bitcoin through their brokerage accounts, there are now more than a dozen Bitcoin E.T.F.s, including BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, which trades under the symbol IBIT and owns even more coins than Strategy does—around seven hundred and seventy-five thousand coins compared with Strategy’s six hundred and fifty thousand.

    In the crypto world, you can never say never, but for now the longtime skeptics of Strategy have been vindicated. They include Chanos, who said he has made money by shorting the firm’s stock and buying bitcoins in what is known as a paired trade. Last week, he told Sherwood, an in-house news site for the online trading platform Robinhood, “Our core thesis from the beginning—and it’s still our core thesis—is don’t pay more than $1 for something worth $1.” If investors follow this advice, Saylor and Strategy will still benefit from any sustained rebound in Bitcoin. But, alas, they won’t be able to reboot their infinite-money machine. ♦

    John Cassidy

    Source link

  • Insider Trading Suspicions and Shafted Token Holders at the Heart of Latest Coinbase Controversy

    Coinbase is betting big on fixing one of crypto’s oldest headaches: the initial coin offerings (ICOs) that fueled the 2017 boom and left a trail of rug pulls in their wake. However, the exchange’s latest acquisition has illustrated some of the underlying issues that still plague this aspect of the crypto market.

    Coinbase has agreed to snatch up Vector, which is a Solana-based trading platform cooked up by the team behind the Tensor NFT marketplace. The deal is intended to improve Coinbase’s integration with Solana, and the exchange described Vector as a platform that “gives traders access to one of the most active, high-velocity trading ecosystems in crypto.”

    At the core of both controversies associated with this latest acquisition announcement by Coinbase is the TNSR token, which is associated with the team behind Vector.

    For one, observers see obvious insider trading around the announcement, with suspicious buys piling into TNSR right before the news hit. The TNSR price surged from around $0.04 to over $0.30 in the days prior to the announcement of the deal. And this was at a time when the crypto market was doing poorly more generally, with bitcoin dropping below $90,000.

    Additionally, Coinbase grabbed the Vector tech and the team behind it but left TNSR token holders out of the deal. Whether practical or not, TNSR holders assumed they would benefit from this sort of acquisition, according to Messari research analyst Sam Ruskin.

     

    Coinbase isn’t pretending it didn’t notice the price action. The exchange is digging into the trades and price movement that took place prior to the announcement, a probe that dredges up ghosts from its own insider trading scandal, where an employee got slapped with federal charges for leaking token listing plans to his brother.

    “We’re aware of this and investigating + will take any necessary action based on our findings,” Head of Corporate Development Aklil Ibssa wrote on X.

    Coinbase’s agreement to acquire Vector brings up existential questions around what crypto market participants are really purchasing when they buy these sorts of tokens. There are many instances where crypto projects have both a token and a formalized company with shareholders associated with it, and the legal ambiguity around what crypto tokens actually represent can leave those holding crypto instead of equity out in the cold.

    “TNSR token holders just had their best asset stripped and got ~$0 in return,” said Dragonfly Partner Omar Kanji. “If this continues, people will just stop buying tokens.”

    The lack of true connection between crypto tokens and the projects and development teams associated with them has been an area of dispute since crypto’s earliest days, and the lack of ownership over anything real has made some wonder if the more technically-innovative aspects of crypto aren’t much different from the often-mocked memecoins.

     

    Notably, this controversy popped up at the same time Coinbase was undertaking the first token offering associated with their new launchpad, which they say is intended to avoid many of the issues and outright fraud associated with the previous ICO bubble of 2017. For many, the Vector deal does not bode well for Coinbase’s reputation as a fair platform for such token launches.

    “Harder for Coinbase to sell their new ICO platform when they set the precedent of tokenholders getting rugged on CB’s own acquisitions,” Jon Charbonneau, who is a co-founder of crypto investment firm DBA, posted on X.

    At the same time, Coinbase is also looking at potentially launching their own crypto token for its Base network, which operates as a layer-two Ethereum network protocol, even though the platform is functioning well today without a token.

     

    Of course, how much blame can be placed on token creators if people are willing to purchase these assets that don’t have much clarity in terms of what exactly is being purchased or if there is any real use case?

    “Funny that crypto waged a war on securities laws and now is about to learn most of them exist to prevent investors from getting ripped off,” said NYU Professor Austin Campbell.

    Mike Pearl

    Source link

  • Movie Review: ‘Now You See Me: Now You Don’t’ brings back the magic with new faces and tricks

    Ten years or so between installments of a successful Hollywood franchise is a lifetime. When it comes to the third “Now You See Me” movie — poof! — time doesn’t matter. These magicians still got it.

    “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” does what sequels apparently must do these days — load up the characters, return to favorite bits and go global — but nails the trick, a crowd-pleasing return that already has a fourth in the works.

    “It is very good to be back,” says Jesse Eisenberg as the egotistical, perfectionist J. Daniel Atlas, the brains behind the magician-robber outfit. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment on the strength of this outing, directed with assurance by Ruben Fleischer.

    “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t” acts as a sort of pivot, bringing back the veterans — all of them, in various forms — as well as introducing three Gen Z eat-the-rich magicians played by Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt. They’re clearly the future. It’s in good (sleight of) hands.

    The movie starts off with a clever rip-off of nasty crypto bros in Brooklyn and expands to scenes in Belgium, the United Arab Emirates, France and South Africa. It’s got Nazis, “Harry Potter” vibes and some Louvre museum heist energy. We didn’t need the F1 chase through Abu Dhabi, but no one’s complaining.

    The original Four Horsemen — Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher — are supplemented by Lizzy Caplan, who had replaced Fisher in the second installment. Morgan Freeman returns as the gravel-voiced mentor.

    Rosamund Pike in “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate via AP)

    The prize at the movie’s heart is a diamond — but no mere bauble. It’s the Heart Diamond, the largest ever discovered, with a price tag of half a billion dollars. It’s the size of a smoked turkey leg.

    The diamond is owned by a particularly vile South African diamond mine scion who uses her ultra-wealth to launder money for warlords and arms dealers. She is played deliciously by Rosamund Pike with a snide disdain and a nifty Afrikaner accent.

    The secretive magic society known as The Eye unites the old Horsemen and the new trio (the Three Ponies?) to steal the diamond, stored in one of those multilevel, biometric “Mission: Impossible”-style bunkers.

    Capturing it won’t enhance their bank statements. Remember, they’re all really anti-capitalist, share-the-wealth magicians — most likely democratic socialists, in vogue right now. “This is a chance to drive a stake through the devil herself,” Eisenberg’s character says.

    Hollywood is funny that way, creating a multimillion-dollar franchise on the back of heroic left-wing activist characters and convincing the UAE to set it on their streets.

    This image released by Lionsgate shows Dominic Sessa, from left, Justice Smith as Charlie, and Ariana Greenblatt in a scene from "Now You See Me: Now You Don't." (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate via AP)

    Dominic Sessa, Justice Smith and Ariana Greenblatt in “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t.” (Katalin Vermes/Lionsgate via AP)

    At first, it’s hard, with eight heroes rushing around, to figure out the primary dynamics. The older Horsemen are strangely muted here — except for Caplan, a hoot — and the young need some seasoning. Intergenerational bickering keeps the movie alive.

    There’s a quick stop at a French chateau where some real magic takes place, literally. The last two “Now You See Me” installments got very green-screen and CGI when it came to effects, but the third very refreshingly steps back into old-fashioned trickery. In a single take, we see each of the heroes try to top the others with a card trick, misdirection or illusion.

    There’s also a hall of mirrors, an upside-down room, an infinity staircase, a perspective-warping room and a nifty escape from a chamber filling with sand. Kudos to the filmmakers for embracing physical tricks over digital trickery. Also, cute use of Lady Gaga’s “Abracadabra.”

    All this leads to a huge showdown between the diamond princess and our motley magicians. You won’t guess who’s been pulling the strings all this time. Seriously, you won’t. And a new generation of magician-thieves are minted. That was a hard trick to pull off.

    “Now You See Me: Now You Don’t,” a Lionsgate release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for some strong language, violence and suggestive references. Running time: 112 minutes. Three stars out of four.

    Source link

  • Bitcoin has shed almost $800 billion since its October peak. What’s behind the plunge?

    Bitcoin continued to slide on Friday, extending a weeks-long slump that has wiped out nearly $800 billion in value since the cryptocurrency hit its 2025 peak last month. The downturn has stripped away all of bitcoin’s gains this year — and raised questions about where it might go from here.

    Since closing at almost $125,000 on Oct. 6, its highest price this year, bitcoin has shed about one-third of its value. On Friday, bitcoin sank below $82,000 before rebounding slightly to $83,509 before noon EDT, according to CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data aggregator. 

    The cryptocurrency, which is trading at its lowest level since April, is now on track for its worst monthly performance since 2022, when a spate of corporate collapses sparked turbulence in the crypto sector, Bloomberg reported Friday. 

    The precipitous drop comes as Wall Street grapples with unease over whether there’s a bubble in artificial technology and tech stocks, prompting a shift away from assets that are viewed as carrying more risk, analysts say. Investors are also cautious given signs of weakness in the labor market, and the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision next month, with more economists now expecting the Fed to hold off on cutting rates.

    “The future is uncertain. It almost feels like it’s moving back to the question: do I even want to hold [bitcoin] in this environment?” said Thomas Chen, the CEO of cryptocurrency company Function, in an email.

    Why is Bitcoin falling?

    Concerns about an AI bubble can translate into turbulence for cryptocurrencies because tech stocks tend to move in tandem with bitcoin, experts noted.  

    “When tech sneezes, it’s natural to expect Bitcoin to catch a cold,” noted Nic Puckrin, investment analyst and co-founder of The Coin Bureau, in an email.

    Aside from pulling back from riskier assets, some investors may be selling bitcoin to cover margin calls. Coinbase, for example, now offers “perpetual futures,” a product that lets traders use up to 10-to-1 leverage on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

    Leveraged positions can force investors to sell because borrowing amplifies every price move — for both gains and losses. Even a small drop in the underlying asset can lead to an outsized loss on a leveraged trade. But if an asset tumbles and the investor can’t meet the margin requirements, the trading platform may automatically liquidate the position, which leads to more selling and downward pressure on its price.

    “When traders borrow heavily to magnify positions, any reversal triggers liquidations that accelerate the move,” Nigel Green, CEO of deVere Group, a financial advisory organization, said in an email.

    Large declines in bitcoin’s price aren’t unusual, and the cryptocurrency has always rebounded, experts noted. 

    Brian Vieten, a research analyst at Siebert Financial, said in a Tuesday email that bitcoin has historically experienced around five corrections of 20-30% or more during bull markets, adding that the issues may represent “temporary headwinds” as some investors could view lower crypto prices as a buying opportunity.

    Edited by

    Aimee Picchi

    The Associated Press

    contributed to this report.

    Source link

  • Cryptocurrency kiosks banned in St. Paul beginning next month

    The St. Paul City Council has voted to ban cryptocurrency kiosks in the city beginning Dec. 21.

    St. Paul city council members in support of the ban said scams involving cryptocurrency kiosks/ATMs particularly impact seniors and those with low incomes.

    “A lot of them are along Ford Parkway, where we know that there is a concentration of seniors and older folk,” said St. Paul Council member Saura Jost.

    According to the FBI, last year, there were nearly 11,000 complaints of cryptocurrency ATM fraud, resulting in more than $240 million in losses. 

    Ethan McClelland is the director of government relations at Bitcoin Depot, which the city said has 10 locations in St. Paul.

    “Placing a reactionary ban on an industry that is already licensed and regulated by the state, which serves a legitimate financial purpose for many St. Paul residents, is unnecessary and will deprive many customers, particularly those who choose to transact in cash, of their only way to participate in the growing digital economy,” McClelland said.

    “Part of the reason they’re becoming so popular is that the people making them have a giant income stream, and the store is putting them in, well, they get a cut of that too,” said Bryce Austin, a Lakeville-based cybersecurity expert with TCE Strategy.

    According to Austin, fraud is high because cryptocurrency allows anonymity.

    “If they can convince you to go to one of these crypto ATMs and put your cash in there, and send them the Bitcoin, it’s much, much harder to be traced, and it’s almost impossible for you to get your money back,” Austin said.

    If anyone asks you for money via your phone, email or text, assume it’s malicious, he said. For those looking to invest in cryptocurrency, Austin said you can do that with large online banks, while avoiding the five to 25% service fees for those who use the ATMs.

    “These machines are not a good way to do legitimate cryptocurrency transfers, unless you are in a real hurry for something and are willing to pay that exorbitant fee,” Austin said.

    Jason Rantala

    Source link

  • WIRED Roundup: Fandom in Politics, Zuckerberg’s Illegal School, and Nepal’s Discord Revolution

    Leah Feiger: Zoë, I am obsessed with this story. Before you continue, I think that it’s really important to say that Caroline, the lovely reporter of this story on your business desk, obtained 1,665 pages of documents about the dispute about Zuckerberg’s house. This story is canon now.

    Zoë Schiffer: Caroline Haskins is a complete star. Our fact-checking team literally cried when I asked them. They were like, “Wait, sorry, how many documents are we looking through?” I was like, “Yes.”

    Leah Feiger: Shout out to the WIRED research team.

    Zoë Schiffer: Absolutely. The school, I think we just have to say, is named after one of the Zuckerberg family chickens. It’s called the Bicken Ben School.

    Leah Feiger: I mean, hearing you say this, it’s, I know you’re being serious, but again.

    Zoë Schiffer: So, the Crescent City neighborhood in Palo Alto, where the Zuckerbergs live, as you can imagine, is some of the best real estate in the entire country. It’s filled with these gorgeous homes, a ton of greenery. Mark Zuckerberg has been expanding his presence throughout the years in this ultra fancy neighborhood. The plot of land that the Zuckerbergs live on has expanded to include 11 previously separate properties. This is so funny and just such a nightmare. If you’re living on the street, you paid whatever, $5 million for your house, and suddenly all of your neighbors are Mark Zuckerberg.

    Leah Feiger: Important to note that not all of them are connecting either. I don’t totally understand what that means. Do they walk through a neighbor’s porch to get to their horse’s pool? What does this entail?

    Zoë Schiffer: We have more questions. We have to Google Earth this. I think there’s some holes in this story that we need to fill in. The expansion first became a concern for Mark Zuckerberg’s neighbors, back in 2016, due to fears that his purchases were driving up the market pretty dramatically. But then, about five years later, neighbors started noticing that a school appeared to be operating out of the Zuckerberg compound. So, this is illegal to do without a permit, at least under the area’s residential zoning code. And so, naturally, the neighbors started to alert the city. Caroline Haskins, the reporter on the story, obtained over a thousand documents, like you said, outlining the resulting fight between the neighbors and the city authorities, basically arguing that, it felt to them like the Zuckerbergs were getting special treatment.

    Zoë Schiffer, Leah Feiger

    Source link

  • Inside a Wild Bitcoin Heist: Five-Star Hotels, Cash-Stuffed Envelopes, and Vanishing Funds

    As Kent Halliburton stood in a bathroom at the Rosewood Hotel in central Amsterdam, thousands of miles from home, running his fingers through an envelope filled with €10,000 in crisp banknotes, he started to wonder what he had gotten himself into.

    Halliburton is the cofounder and CEO of Sazmining, a company that operates bitcoin mining hardware on behalf of clients—a model known as “mining-as-a-service.” Halliburton is based in Peru, but Sazmining runs mining hardware out of third-party data centers across Norway, Paraguay, Ethiopia, and the United States.

    As Halliburton tells it, he had flown to Amsterdam the previous day, August 5, to meet Even and Maxim, two representatives of a wealthy Monaco-based family. The family office had offered to purchase hundreds of bitcoin mining rigs from Sazmining—around $4 million worth—which the company would install at a facility currently under construction in Ethiopia. Before finalizing the deal, the family office had asked to meet Halliburton in person.

    When Halliburton arrived at the Rosewood Hotel, he found Even and Maxim perched in a booth. They struck him as playboy, high-roller types—particularly Maxim, who wore a tan three-piece suit and had a highly manicured look, his long dark hair parted down the middle. A Rolex protruded from the cuff of his sleeve.

    Over a three-course lunch—ceviche with a roe garnish, Chilean sea bass, and cherry cake—they discussed the contours of the deal and traded details about their respective backgrounds. Even was talkative and jocular, telling stories about blowout parties in Marrakech. Maxim was aloof; he mostly stared at Halliburton, holding his gaze for long periods at a time as though sizing him up.

    As a relationship-building exercise, Even proposed that Halliburton sell the family office around $3,000 in bitcoin. Halliburton was initially hesitant, but chalked it up as a peculiar dating ritual. One of the guys slid Halliburton the cash-filled envelope and told him to go to the bathroom, where he could count out the amount in private. “It felt like something out of a James Bond movie,” says Halliburton. “It was all very exotic to me.”

    Halliburton left in a taxi, somewhat bemused by the encounter, but otherwise hopeful of closing the deal with the family office. For Sazmining, a small company with around 15 employees, it promised to be transformative.

    Less than two weeks later, Halliburton had lost more than $200,000 worth of bitcoin to Even and Maxim. He didn’t know whether Sazmining could survive the blow, nor how the scammers had ensnared him.

    Joel Khalili

    Source link

  • Scaramuccis led $220 million investment in crypto mining firm tied to President’s family—‘Bitcoin transcends politics’ | Fortune

    Anthony Scaramucci briefly served as the White House’s communications director in President Donald Trump’s first administration, but soon after became a prominent critic of the commander- in-chief. Still, that hasn’t stopped the SkyBridge Capital founder and his son, AJ Scaramucci, from backing American Bitcoin, the Bitcoin miner that counts the President’s sons Eric as a cofounder and Donald Jr. as an investor. Solari Capital, an investment firm founded by AJ Scaramucci, led a July $220 million funding round in the Trump family firm, the Scaramuccis told Fortune. 

    American Bitcoin raised the money before it went public via a reverse merger in September, but it never disclosed the investors. Solari Capital put over $100 million into the company, AJ said, declining to name a specific number. Anthony also put in a small check of his own and declined to say how much. Other participants in the round included the life coach Tony Robbins, the Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson, longtime investor Grant Cardone, and the serial founder Peter Diamandis.

    “Has my Dad and Don Sr. [Donald Trump], have they had their fair share of back and forth? Of course they have,” AJ told Fortune, “but Bitcoin transcends politics.”

    Bitcoin believers

    Anthony Scaramucci soared to national prominence in 2017 when President Trump tapped him to lead the White House’s communications efforts. Scaramucci was fired after only a few days on the job, however, following a report of a foul-mouthed rant against other Trump staffers.

    Since then, Scaramucci has come out in force against Trump and supported Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in their presidential campaigns in 2020 and 2024, respectively. But, the Wall Street financier has also been a longtime crypto advocate and Bitcoin believer, something the two families began to share in common after Trump came out in support of the crypto industry during his 2024 campaign for reelection.

    “There may be a blue and a red team, but there’s also an orange team, and that’s Bitcoin,” Anthony, referring to the color most associated with the cryptocurrency, told Fortune.

    AJ sourced the deal for Solari Capital. The younger Scaramucci was roommates with Matt Prusak, now the president of American Bitcoin, when the two attended Stanford University’s business school. “Matt is one of my closest personal friends,” AJ said. 

    When Prusak told him they were spinning off American Bitcoin from Hut 8, another Bitcoin miner, AJ jumped on the opportunity. He said he thought the company could compete in the saturated market of public companies, like Michael Saylor’s Strategy, that acquire Bitcoin and pitch their shares as a way for investors to get access to the world’s largest cryptocurrency via the stock market. 

    American Bitcoin generates its own cryptocurrency through mining, or solving complex mathematical puzzles in return for portions of the token. It then holds that cryptocurrency as well as buys more of it on the market.

    “The Scaramuccis really believe in what American Bitcoin is doing, and they were willing to put kind of their personal issues aside and say, ‘Look, we think this is a great company.’” Asher Genoot, chairman of American Bitcoin, told Fortune.

    Ben Weiss

    Source link

  • The President’s Pardon | Sunday on 60 Minutes

    President Trump’s pardon of Changpeng Zhao came shortly after Zhao’s company, Binance, helped catapult the Trump family’s cryptocurrency firm, World Liberty Financial, into international recognition. The firm is a major source of the Trump family’s fortune. 60 Minutes reports, Sunday.

    Source link

  • DOJ Issued Seizure Warrant to Starlink Over Satellite Internet Systems Used at Scam Compound

    As scam compounds in Southeast Asia continue to rake in billions of dollars in stolen funds from victims around the world, United States law enforcement aims to cut scammers off at the source by issuing seizure warrants for Starlink satellite internet terminals that provide cybercriminals with connectivity. Two US warrants and affidavits seen by WIRED detail how Starlink devices are allegedly being used by cybercriminals running scam compounds in Myanmar.

    One warrant, issued on Wednesday by US magistrate judge G. Michael Harvey, authorized the seizure of nine Starlink terminals and two Starlink accounts allegedly used in scam compounds in Payathonzu, near Three Pagodas Pass at the Myanmar-Thai border. A linked affidavit, written by FBI investigators, claims that the Starlink devices and accounts played a “substantial role” in an alleged money laundering and wire fraud operation targeting US citizens—saying Starlink parent company SpaceX should “disable service” to the devices. It also claims that at least 26 Starlink dishes appeared to be on the roofs of several buildings making up one scam center of several in the Three Pagodas Pass area.

    The second warrant and affidavit—which was not issued to Starlink but focused on seizing websites used in scamming—also claims that “at least” 79 Starlink dishes appear on the roofs of buildings at the notorious Tai Chang compound in Myanmar, which US officials say is controlled by the Democratic Karen Benevolent Army, an armed group in Myanmar that was sanctioned by the US government this week. The warrant was signed on Monday by US magistrate judge Matthew J. Sharbaugh.

    Both sets of legal documents cite a WIRED investigation from earlier this year, which revealed that scam compounds in Myanmar have been using Starlink for internet access. Starlink, which is owned and operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, is a high-speed satellite internet service available in more than 150 countries around the world.

    The action comes as part of a new US law enforcement initiative known as the District of Columbia Scam Center Strike Force that was announced by the Justice Department, FBI, and Secret Service on Wednesday. The effort aims to combat cryptocurrency scams targeting Americans, specifically fraud that originates from an ecosystem of systematized scamming that has evolved in multiple Southeast Asian countries and is often linked to Chinese organized crime. The “Strike Force” is already operational, and the Justice Department says it has seized roughly $400 million in cryptocurrency so far that was stolen in scams.

    “The Department of Justice will not stand by while Chinese organized crime victimizes Americans and bleeds dry the hard-earned investments of American citizens,” Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, said in a press conference. “We have seized websites being used by these compounds in Southeast Asia that are used to victimize Americans. We are seeking warrants to see satellite terminals and accounts being used by the perpetrators to connect to the internet.”

    Matt Burgess, Lily Hay Newman

    Source link

  • Crypto market plunges as Bitcoin falls below $97,000 | Fortune

    When Bitcoin dipped under $100,000 early last week, some in the crypto world thought it couldn’t get any worse. It did. As of Friday mid-day, Bitcoin was trading at below $97,000 for the first time since May and is down about 22% since its all-time high of about $126,000 just last month. 

    Ethereum and Solana, two other major cryptocurrencies known as altcoins, have also sputtered. The former is down about 3% in the last week to about $3,236, and the latter is down about 12% to just under $142 during that time. 

    The crypto market’s dip comes amid sentiment that a December rate cut from the Federal Reserve is growing less likely. Lower interest rates are typically a spur for crypto speculation.

    The crypto sector has experienced a rough first half of November, continuing the downward trend which started during the flash crash of October 10. 

    “This is clearly triggered by macro risk adjusting on the back of a more hawkish Fed stance and a vacuum in macro data of inflation and jobs,” said Jasper De Maere, desk strategist at Wintermute. “[The] probability of 25 basis points rate cuts in December dropped from 70% only three days ago to around 50% today, leading to a rebalancing of risk.” 

    Bitcoin has been especially volatile in the last six weeks. The beginning of ‘Uptober’ was true to its moniker, as Bitcoin crossed the $125,000 threshold for the first time in its history. Its downward spiral began on October 10, the day where traders saw $19 billion in their positions evaporate. That only worsened when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed doubt about another rate cut at the end of the year. That doubt has only magnified since, as this week Fed policymakers have echoed Powell’s caution. 

    The recent crypto boom has been spurred in large part by the favorable regulatory policies from President Donald Trump’s administration. But the last month has erased much of those winnings for the sector, and the darkness might linger, according to some analysts. 

    “The crypto market has set lower local lows, confirming the downward trend,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, chief market analyst at FxPro. “The bearish signal – the death cross – is already looming over the first cryptocurrency.”

    Carlos Garcia

    Source link

  • These are the 37 donors helping pay for Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom

    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his $300 million White House ballroom will be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”

    The White House released a list of 37 donors, including crypto billionaires, charitable organizations, sports team owners, powerful financiers, tech and tobacco giants, media companies, longtime supporters of Republican causes and several of the president’s neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida.

    It’s incomplete. Among others, the list doesn’t include Carrier Group, which offered to donate an HVAC system for the ballroom, and artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, whose CEO, Jensen Huang, publicly discussed its donation.

    The White House hasn’t said how much each donor is giving, and almost none was willing to divulge that. Very few commented on their contributions when contacted by The Associated Press.

    A senior White House official said the list has grown since it was first released in October, but some companies don’t want to be publicly named until required to do so by financial disclosure regulations. No foreign individuals or entities were among the donors, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.

    Here’s a look at the divulged donors:

    Tech giants (8):

    Amazon Background: Trump was once highly critical of company founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, but has been much less so lately. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, an event attended by Bezos. Its video streaming service paid $40 million to license a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Its cloud-based computing operation, Amazon Web Services, is a major government contractor.

    Apple Background: After an up-and-down relationship during Trump’s first term, CEO Tim Cook has sought to improve his standing with the president this time. Before returning to the White House, Trump hosted Cook at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and said he had spoken with Cook about the company’s long-running tax battles with the European Union. Cook also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. In the spring, Trump threatened the computing giant with tariffs after Apple announced plans to build manufacturing facilities in India. In August, Cook presented the president with a customized glass plaque with a gold base as the CEO announced plans to bring Apple’s total investment commitment in U.S. manufacturing over four years to $600 billion.

    Google Background: During his first term, Trump’s administration sued Google for antitrust violations. While a candidate last year, Trump suggested he might seek to break up the search engine behemoth. Once Trump won the election, Google donated $1 million to his inauguration, and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, joined other major tech executives in attending the ceremony. Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, agreed in September to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Trump after it suspended his account following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to court filings, $22 million of that went to the Trust for the National Mall, which can help pay for ballroom construction.

    HP Background: An original Silicon Valley stalwart, the company donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. HP ‘s CEO, Enrique Lores, participated in a White House roundtable event in September. Lores also previously met with President Joe Biden at the White House on multiple occasions as top CEOs endorsed that administration’s economic plans.

    Meta Background: Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been critical of Trump going back to 2016, and Facebook suspended Trump for years after the Jan. 6 insurrection. This time around, Meta contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Zuckerberg attended.

    Micron Technology Background: The producer of advanced memory computer chips announced an April 2024 agreement with the Biden administration to provide $6.1 billion in government support for Micron to make chips domestically. Then, in June, Micron pledged $200 billion for U.S. memory chip manufacturing expansion under Trump. But at least $120 billion of that involved holdovers first announced during Biden’s administration.

    Microsoft Background: The company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, twice what it spent for Biden’s or for Trump’s first inauguration. CEO Satya Nadella has also met with Trump numerous times, as Microsoft has supported the administration’s relaxation of regulations on artificial intelligence. He met previously with Biden, too. Trump has called for Microsoft’s president of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, to be fired because she was a deputy attorney general under Biden when the Justice Department led several investigations against Trump.

    Palantir Technologies Background: Co-founded by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel, the firm concentrates on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has seen profits soar thanks to lucrative defense and other federal contracts.

    Crypto (5):

    Coinbase Background: The major cryptocurrency exchange was founded by Brian Armstrong, a top donor to a political action committee that helped Trump and other pro-crypto candidates in 2024. Armstrong attended the first crypto summit at the White House in March. Coinbase also hired Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, to its Global Advisory Council.

    Ripple Background: In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit filed during Trump’s first term, which accused the company of violating securities laws by selling XRP crypto coins without a securities registration. In his second term, Trump has eased regulations on digital assets, repealing an SEC accounting rule and a previous presidential executive order mandating more federal study and proposed changes to crypto regulations.

    Tether Background: A cryptocurrency company and major stablecoin issuer, Tether paid fines for misleading investors. CEO Paolo Ardoino has been to Trump’s White House, and, in April, the company hired former Trump administration crypto policy official Bo Hines to lead its domestic expansion efforts.

    Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss Background: Each Winklevoss twin is listed as a separate donor. Best known as Zuckerberg’s chief antagonists in “The Social Network,” the brothers founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. Biden’s SEC sued Gemini for selling unregistered securities, but the case has been paused under Trump.

    Energy and industrial (4):

    Caterpillar Background: The equipment maker ‘s PAC has donated to candidates from both parties, but given more to Republicans. It has also said publicly that Trump’s tariffs, some of which the administration has now eased, could increase its costs and hurt earnings.

    NextEra Energy Background: NextEra is the world’s largest electric utility holding company. Trump says he’ll work to ensure tech giants can secure their own sources of electricity to power data centers, especially as they expand energy-hogging artificial intelligence operations. Google recently entered into an agreement to buy power from a shuttered nuclear power plant in Iowa owned by NextEra, which the company plans to bring back online in 2029.

    Paolo Tiramani Background: An American industrial designer who has donated to Trump’s political campaigns. Tiramani, with his son, runs BOXABL, a firm specializing in modular, prefabricated homes.

    Union Pacific Background: Trump has endorsed the company’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would be the largest-ever rail merger. It also will be up to the president to appoint two more Republican members of the Surface Transportation Board, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the merger. In August, Trump fired one of the two Democratic members of the board.

    Philanthropy (3):

    Adelson Family Foundation Background: Founded to strengthen the state of Israel and the Jewish people, the foundation was created by Miriam Adelson, the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, close Trump ally and longtime GOP megadonor. She’s also the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands.

    Betty Wold Johnson Foundation Background: Based in Palm Beach, the foundation supports health, arts and culture initiatives, as well as environmental and educational programs. It’s named in honor of the mother of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom during his first term.

    Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation Background: The nonprofit based in Lake Worth Beach, near Palm Beach, focuses on promoting health care, social justice, the arts and community initiatives. Isaac is an Israeli American businessman and financier and former chair of Marvel Entertainment. He and his wife have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns and affiliated PACs.

    Trump administration officials (3):

    Benjamin Leon Jr. Background: The Cuban American founder of Miami-based Leon Medical Centers is Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Spain.

    Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher Background: A former Republican senator from Georgia, Loeffler heads Trump’s Small Business Administration. Her husband is CEO of the energy market Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and chairs the New York Stock Exchange. The couple faced scrutiny in 2020 for dumping substantial portions of their portfolio and purchasing new stocks, including in firms making protective equipment, after Congress received briefings on the severity of the coming coronavirus pandemic.

    Lutnick Family Background: Howard Lutnick is Trump’s commerce secretary. A crypto enthusiast, he once headed the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

    Communications/entertainment (3):

    Comcast Background: The mass media and telecom conglomerate has often been criticized by Trump, including in April, when the president posted that Comcast was a “disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.” The company owns NBC and is spinning off MSNBC. It could be interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discover, and that would leave Comcast looking for government approval.

    Hard Rock International Background: A Florida-based gaming and tourism concern owned by the Seminole Tribe, the company operates a number of casinos, including the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump has for decades criticized federal exemptions allowing tribes to operate casinos.

    T-Mobile Background: The wireless carrier is indirectly linked to Trump Mobile, which the president’s family controls and offers gold phones and cell service in a licensing deal. Trump Mobile uses Liberty Mobile Wireless, a small, Florida-based network that T-Mobile says runs its operations on T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile says that is unrelated to its decision to donate to Trump’s ballroom, which it says is meant to “restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital.”

    Big Tobacco (2):

    Altria Group Background: The tobacco giant controls Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro. It has pressed for federal crackdowns on counterfeit and illegal vaping products. The company donated $50,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

    Reynolds American Background: With brands including Lucky Strike and Camel, the company has been active in lobbying to steer the Trump administration away from a Biden-proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.

    Defense/national security (2):

    Booz Allen Hamilton Background: A major defense and national security technology firm with extensive government contracts, it paid fines to settle lawsuits with the Justice Department under Biden. Booz Allen Hamilton agreed to pay more than $377 million in 2023 to settle allegations that it improperly billing costs to its government contracts. In January, it paid nearly $16 million to settle allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims in connection with government contracts.

    Lockheed Martin Corporation Background: The massive defense contractor has huge government contracts. It said in a statement that it “is grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House.”

    Individuals (7):

    Stefan E. Brodie Background: A biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of the chemical manufacturing company Purolite, Brodie and his family donated to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and affiliated committees. Brodie and his brother, Donald, were convicted in 2002 of circumventing U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

    Charles and Marissa Cascarilla Background: Charles Cascarilla is co‑founder of the blockchain firm Paxos. He and his wife are philanthropists who have advocated for financial technology sector deregulation.

    J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul Background: Longtime Republican donors and Palm Beach residents, the couple controls U.S. sugar refining interests that includes the Domino brand.

    Edward and Shari Glazer Background: Members of the family that owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has a controlling stake in the Manchester United football club, the couple donated to Trump’s campaign. Edward is the founder and CEO of US Property Trust, which operates shopping centers, and the car dealership company US Auto Trust.

    Harold Hamm Background: The billionaire oil tycoon and pioneer of hydraulic fracturing heads the oil producer Continental Resources. He’s praised the Trump administration for aggressively moving to purchase oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile.

    Stephen A. Schwarzman Background: A Palm Beach resident and chair and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he helped establish in 1985. Schwarzman has donated to Trump and his PACs previously and led his first-term President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

    Konstantin Sokolov Background: Born in Russia, he immigrated to the U.S. and now heads the Chicago-based private equity firm IJS Investments. Sokolov has donated to many educational and charitable causes in the past, and to Trump’s political campaigns.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

    ___

    This story has been updated to correct the first name of an individual who donated to the White House ballroom. He is Harold Hamm, not Howard Hamm.

    Source link

  • These are the 37 donors helping pay for Trump’s $300 million White House ballroom

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump says his $300 million White House ballroom will be paid for “100% by me and some friends of mine.”

    The White House released a list of 37 donors, including crypto billionaires, charitable organizations, sports team owners, powerful financiers, tech and tobacco giants, media companies, longtime supporters of Republican causes and several of the president’s neighbors in Palm Beach, Florida.

    It’s incomplete. Among others, the list doesn’t include Carrier Group, which offered to donate an HVAC system for the ballroom, and artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia, whose CEO, Jensen Huang, publicly discussed its donation.

    The White House hasn’t said how much each donor is giving, and almost none was willing to divulge that. Very few commented on their contributions when contacted by The Associated Press.

    A senior White House official said the list has grown since it was first released in October, but some companies don’t want to be publicly named until required to do so by financial disclosure regulations. No foreign individuals or entities were among the donors, according to the official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details that haven’t been made public.

    Here’s a look at the divulged donors:

    Amazon Background: Trump was once highly critical of company founder Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, but has been much less so lately. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, an event attended by Bezos. Its video streaming service paid $40 million to license a documentary about first lady Melania Trump. Its cloud-based computing operation, Amazon Web Services, is a major government contractor.

    Apple Background: After an up-and-down relationship during Trump’s first term, CEO Tim Cook has sought to improve his standing with the president this time. Before returning to the White House, Trump hosted Cook at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago, and said he had spoken with Cook about the company’s long-running tax battles with the European Union. Cook also donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. In the spring, Trump threatened the computing giant with tariffs after Apple announced plans to build manufacturing facilities in India. In August, Cook presented the president with a customized glass plaque with a gold base as the CEO announced plans to bring Apple’s total investment commitment in U.S. manufacturing over four years to $600 billion.

    Google Background: During his first term, Trump’s administration sued Google for antitrust violations. While a candidate last year, Trump suggested he might seek to break up the search engine behemoth. Once Trump won the election, Google donated $1 million to his inauguration, and its CEO, Sundar Pichai, joined other major tech executives in attending the ceremony. Google’s subsidiary, YouTube, agreed in September to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit with Trump after it suspended his account following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. According to court filings, $22 million of that went to the Trust for the National Mall, which can help pay for ballroom construction.

    HP Background: An original Silicon Valley stalwart, the company donated to Trump’s inaugural fund. HP ‘s CEO, Enrique Lores, participated in a White House roundtable event in September. Lores also previously met with President Joe Biden at the White House on multiple occasions as top CEOs endorsed that administration’s economic plans.

    Meta Background: Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg had been critical of Trump going back to 2016, and Facebook suspended Trump for years after the Jan. 6 insurrection. This time around, Meta contributed $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, and Zuckerberg attended.

    Micron Technology Background: The producer of advanced memory computer chips announced an April 2024 agreement with the Biden administration to provide $6.1 billion in government support for Micron to make chips domestically. Then, in June, Micron pledged $200 billion for U.S. memory chip manufacturing expansion under Trump. But at least $120 billion of that involved holdovers first announced during Biden’s administration.

    Microsoft Background: The company donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration, twice what it spent for Biden’s or for Trump’s first inauguration. CEO Satya Nadella has also met with Trump numerous times, as Microsoft has supported the administration’s relaxation of regulations on artificial intelligence. He met previously with Biden, too. Trump has called for Microsoft’s president of global affairs, Lisa Monaco, to be fired because she was a deputy attorney general under Biden when the Justice Department led several investigations against Trump.

    Palantir Technologies Background: Co-founded by billionaire libertarian Peter Thiel, the firm concentrates on artificial intelligence and machine learning. It has seen profits soar thanks to lucrative defense and other federal contracts.

    Coinbase Background: The major cryptocurrency exchange was founded by Brian Armstrong, a top donor to a political action committee that helped Trump and other pro-crypto candidates in 2024. Armstrong attended the first crypto summit at the White House in March. Coinbase also hired Trump’s co-campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, to its Global Advisory Council.

    Ripple Background: In March, the Securities and Exchange Commission dropped a lawsuit filed during Trump’s first term, which accused the company of violating securities laws by selling XRP crypto coins without a securities registration. In his second term, Trump has eased regulations on digital assets, repealing an SEC accounting rule and a previous presidential executive order mandating more federal study and proposed changes to crypto regulations.

    Tether Background: A cryptocurrency company and major stablecoin issuer, Tether paid fines for misleading investors. CEO Paolo Ardoino has been to Trump’s White House, and, in April, the company hired former Trump administration crypto policy official Bo Hines to lead its domestic expansion efforts.

    Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss Background: Each Winklevoss twin is listed as a separate donor. Best known as Zuckerberg’s chief antagonists in “The Social Network,” the brothers founded the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. Biden’s SEC sued Gemini for selling unregistered securities, but the case has been paused under Trump.

    Caterpillar Background: The equipment maker ‘s PAC has donated to candidates from both parties, but given more to Republicans. It has also said publicly that Trump’s tariffs, some of which the administration has now eased, could increase its costs and hurt earnings.

    NextEra Energy Background: NextEra is the world’s largest electric utility holding company. Trump says he’ll work to ensure tech giants can secure their own sources of electricity to power data centers, especially as they expand energy-hogging artificial intelligence operations. Google recently entered into an agreement to buy power from a shuttered nuclear power plant in Iowa owned by NextEra, which the company plans to bring back online in 2029.

    Paolo Tiramani Background: An American industrial designer who has donated to Trump’s political campaigns. Tiramani, with his son, runs BOXABL, a firm specializing in modular, prefabricated homes.

    Union Pacific Background: Trump has endorsed the company’s proposed $85 billion acquisition of Norfolk Southern, which would be the largest-ever rail merger. It also will be up to the president to appoint two more Republican members of the Surface Transportation Board, who will ultimately decide whether to approve the merger. In August, Trump fired one of the two Democratic members of the board.

    Adelson Family Foundation Background: Founded to strengthen the state of Israel and the Jewish people, the foundation was created by Miriam Adelson, the majority owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, close Trump ally and longtime GOP megadonor. She’s also the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire founder and owner of Las Vegas Sands.

    Betty Wold Johnson Foundation Background: Based in Palm Beach, the foundation supports health, arts and culture initiatives, as well as environmental and educational programs. It’s named in honor of the mother of New York Jets owner Woody Johnson, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom during his first term.

    Laura & Isaac Perlmutter Foundation Background: The nonprofit based in Lake Worth Beach, near Palm Beach, focuses on promoting health care, social justice, the arts and community initiatives. Isaac is an Israeli American businessman and financier and former chair of Marvel Entertainment. He and his wife have donated to Trump’s presidential campaigns and affiliated PACs.

    Benjamin Leon Jr. Background: The Cuban American founder of Miami-based Leon Medical Centers is Trump’s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Spain.

    Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher Background: A former Republican senator from Georgia, Loeffler heads Trump’s Small Business Administration. Her husband is CEO of the energy market Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and chairs the New York Stock Exchange. The couple faced scrutiny in 2020 for dumping substantial portions of their portfolio and purchasing new stocks, including in firms making protective equipment, after Congress received briefings on the severity of the coming coronavirus pandemic.

    Lutnick Family Background: Howard Lutnick is Trump’s commerce secretary. A crypto enthusiast, he once headed the brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald.

    Comcast Background: The mass media and telecom conglomerate has often been criticized by Trump, including in April, when the president posted that Comcast was a “disgrace to the integrity of broadcasting.” The company owns NBC and is spinning off MSNBC. It could be interested in acquiring Warner Bros. Discover, and that would leave Comcast looking for government approval.

    Hard Rock International Background: A Florida-based gaming and tourism concern owned by the Seminole Tribe, the company operates a number of casinos, including the former Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Trump has for decades criticized federal exemptions allowing tribes to operate casinos.

    T-Mobile Background: The wireless carrier is indirectly linked to Trump Mobile, which the president’s family controls and offers gold phones and cell service in a licensing deal. Trump Mobile uses Liberty Mobile Wireless, a small, Florida-based network that T-Mobile says runs its operations on T-Mobile’s network. T-Mobile says that is unrelated to its decision to donate to Trump’s ballroom, which it says is meant to “restore and enrich the historic landmarks that define our nation’s capital.”

    Altria Group Background: The tobacco giant controls Philip Morris USA, maker of Marlboro. It has pressed for federal crackdowns on counterfeit and illegal vaping products. The company donated $50,000 to Trump’s inauguration.

    Reynolds American Background: With brands including Lucky Strike and Camel, the company has been active in lobbying to steer the Trump administration away from a Biden-proposed ban on menthol cigarettes.

    Booz Allen Hamilton Background: A major defense and national security technology firm with extensive government contracts, it paid fines to settle lawsuits with the Justice Department under Biden. Booz Allen Hamilton agreed to pay more than $377 million in 2023 for improperly billing costs to its government contracts. In January, said it’d pay nearly $16 million to settle allegations that it submitted fraudulent claims in connection with government contracts.

    Lockheed Martin Corporation Background: The massive defense contractor has huge government contracts. It said in a statement that it “is grateful for the opportunity to help bring the President’s vision to reality and make this addition to the People’s House.”

    Stefan E. Brodie Background: A biotech entrepreneur and co-founder of the chemical manufacturing company Purolite, Brodie and his family donated to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and affiliated committees. Brodie and his brother, Donald, were convicted in 2002 of circumventing U.S. sanctions on Cuba.

    Charles and Marissa Cascarilla Background: Charles Cascarilla is co‑founder of the blockchain firm Paxos. He and his wife are philanthropists who have advocated for financial technology sector deregulation.

    J. Pepe and Emilia Fanjul Background: Longtime Republican donors and Palm Beach residents, the couple controls U.S. sugar refining interests that includes the Domino brand.

    Edward and Shari Glazer Background: Members of the family that owns the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has a controlling stake in the Manchester United football club, the couple donated to Trump’s campaign. Edward is the founder and CEO of US Property Trust, which operates shopping centers, and the car dealership company US Auto Trust.

    Howard Hamm Background: The billionaire oil tycoon and pioneer of hydraulic fracturing heads the oil producer Continental Resources. He’s praised the Trump administration for aggressively moving to purchase oil to replenish the Strategic Petroleum Reserve stockpile.

    Stephen A. Schwarzman Background: A Palm Beach resident and chair and CEO of the Blackstone Group, a global private equity firm he helped establish in 1985. Schwarzman has donated to Trump and his PACs previously and led his first-term President’s Strategic and Policy Forum.

    Konstantin Sokolov Background: Born in Russia, he immigrated to the U.S. and now heads the Chicago-based private equity firm IJS Investments. Sokolov has donated to many educational and charitable causes in the past, and to Trump’s political campaigns.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

    Source link

  • Chinese ‘cryptoqueen’ who scammed thousands jailed in UK over Bitcoin stash worth $6.6 billion

    LONDON (AP) — A Chinese woman who was found with 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) in Bitcoin after defrauding more than 128,000 people in China in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced by a U.K. court on Tuesday to over 11 years in prison.

    Police said the investigation into Zhimin Qian, 47, led to officers recovering devices holding 61,000 Bitcoin in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K.

    Qian, dubbed “cryptoqueen” by British media, was arrested in April 2024 after spending years evading the authorities and living an “extravagant” lifestyle in Europe, staying in luxury hotels across the continent and buying fine jewelry and watches, prosecutors said.

    Police said she ran a pyramid scheme that lured more than 128,000 people to invest in her business between 2014 and 2017, including many who invested their life savings and pensions. Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.

    When she attracted the attention of Chinese authorities, Qian fled to the U.K. under a fake identity. Once in London, police said she rented a “lavish” house for over 17,000 pounds ($23,000) per month, and tried but failed to buy multimillion pound properties in a bid to convert the Bitcoin.

    Investigators found notes Qian had written documenting her aspirations — including her “intention to become the monarch of Liberland, a self-proclaimed country consisting of a strip of land between Croatia and Serbia.”

    They said other notes showed Qian detailing her hopes of “meeting a duke and royalty.”

    Judge Sally-Ann Hales said Qian was the architect of the crimes from start to finish.

    “Your motive was one of pure greed. You left China without a thought for the people whose investments you had stolen and enjoyed for a period of time a lavish lifestyle. You lied and schemed, all the while seeking to benefit yourself,” Hales said.

    The businesswoman, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses and transferring and possessing criminal property, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court.

    She was sentenced alongside her accomplice Seng Hok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national who was accused of helping Qian transfer and launder the cryptocurrency. Ling was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

    Source link

  • China’s ‘cryptoqueen’ jailed in UK over $6.6 billion Bitcoin scam

    LONDON — A Chinese woman who was found with 5 billion pounds ($6.6 billion) in Bitcoin after defrauding more than 128,000 people in China in a Ponzi scheme was sentenced by a U.K. court on Tuesday to over 11 years in prison.

    Police said the investigation into Zhimin Qian, 47, led to officers recovering devices holding 61,000 Bitcoin in the largest cryptocurrency seizure in the U.K.

    Qian, dubbed “cryptoqueen” by British media, was arrested in April 2024 after spending years evading the authorities and living an “extravagant” lifestyle in Europe, staying in luxury hotels across the continent and buying fine jewelry and watches, prosecutors said.

    Police said she ran a pyramid scheme that lured more than 128,000 people to invest in her business between 2014 and 2017, including many who invested their life savings and pensions. Authorities said she stored the illegally obtained funds in Bitcoin assets.

    When she attracted the attention of Chinese authorities, Qian fled to the U.K. under a fake identity. Once in London, police said she rented a “lavish” house for over 17,000 pounds ($23,000) per month.

    Investigators found notes Qian had written documenting her aspirations — including her “intention to become the monarch of Liberland, a self-proclaimed country consisting of a strip of land between Croatia and Serbia.”

    The businesswoman, who had pleaded guilty to money laundering offenses and transferring and possessing criminal property, was sentenced Tuesday to 11 years and eight months at Southwark Crown Court.

    She was sentenced alongside her accomplice Seng Hok Ling, 47, a Malaysian national who was accused of helping Qian transfer and launder the cryptocurrency. Ling was jailed at the same court for four years and 11 months after he pleaded guilty to one count of transferring criminal property.

    Source link

  • $120 Million Crypto Hack Blamed on Office Space-Style Exploit

    Earlier this week, a critical vulnerability in the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Balancer was exploited, with crypto losses estimated to be worth $120 million or more. While it was initially unclear how the exploit worked, a preliminary report from the team behind Balancer has indicated it mostly came down to how the protocol dealt with rounding crypto token balances.

    This exploit of Balancer shocked many in the DeFi ecosystem, as this is a project that has undergone many security audits from respected firms, and the particular version of the protocol that was exploited had existed in the wild since 2021.

    In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday morning, former Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chris Krebs compared the Balancer exploit to the scheme from Office Space, where the idea was to skim fractions of a penny off the top of many individual transactions. Krebbs also pointed to the possible use of artificial intelligence in crafting the exploit code as another interesting aspect of the situation.

    Without getting too deep into the technical weeds, here’s basically what happened with the exploit, according to Balancer’s own analysis.

    At the heart of this mess was a rounding error in Balancer’s code related to how it handles trades, specifically batched swaps where multiple trades between different crypto assets can be bundled into a single transaction. This is intended to help users save on gas, which is effectively the crypto-denominated cost of interacting with a blockchain-based smart contract platform like Balancer.

    During a particular version of this type of swap, known as EXACT_OUT, Balancer’s code has to scale numbers up or down to make calculations precise (think of it like converting pennies to dollars). But the system sometimes rounded down in a way that created tiny imbalances.

    Over repeated trades, hackers could exploit these tiny gaps to mess with the pool’s balances, hence Krebs’s comparison to the plan in Office Space. There was some additional manipulation on top of that, but this rounding error was the key flaw that opened up the opportunity for the hacker.

    While the Balancer exploit sent shockwaves throughout the DeFi ecosystem, some blockchains were able to limit the reward for the hacker by simply freezing assets, which is obviously at odds with the “code is law” philosophy that was originally at the heart of crypto platforms focused on more expressive smart contracts, such as Ethereum.

    Some DeFi proponents were worried a hack of a widely trusted protocol like Balancer would weaken the level of trust in the DeFi sector more generally; however, it’s clear that much of this activity is still somewhat centrally controlled and able to operate in ways similar to traditional fintech platforms.

    According to Unchained, the Polygon and Sonic blockchains effectively froze or “censored” some of the Balancer hacker’s assets following the exploit to prevent the funds from moving anywhere else in the future. Berachain went as far as to deploy an emergency hard fork that will allow those affected by the hack to reclaim their funds.

    This is reminiscent of actions taken by Ethereum developers following the infamous hack of The DAO nearly ten years ago in the early days of the crypto network. And it’s clear that crypto is still struggling with the tradeoffs between giving everyone full control over their own digital money and subsequently having no one to turn to when something goes wrong.

    Some have noted that it makes sense to implement these sorts of training wheels-esque protections on less developed crypto networks, but others see this as yet another example of how much of the supposed decentralization in the space is more theater than technical reality, as was also exposed during the recent Amazon Web Services downtime.

    Kyle Torpey

    Source link

  • Crypto.com, Robinhood Launching Entertainment Event Contracts

    Posted on: November 4, 2025, 06:52h. 

    Last updated on: November 4, 2025, 06:52h.

    • Brokerage firms make announcements within a day of each other
    • Crypto. Com is partnering with Hollywood.com
    • Robinhood continues expansion of prediction markets menu

    Crypto.com and Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) are betting entertainment and pop culture event contracts will be gain traction with prediction markets traders.

    Robinhood
    A sample Robinhood image on a mobile phone. The company and rival Crypto.com are pushing further into entertainment event contracts. (Image: Bloomberg)

    On Monday, Crypto.com, which is an established player in the event contracts space, announced a partnership with Hollywood.com through which that entertainment site will offer Crypto.com event contracts on actors, awards, movies, television shows, and more.

    With the launch of this new offering from Hollywood.com, entertainment fans can express and trade their opinions on entertainment event contracts across Hollywood movies, Broadway shows, television programs, musical artists, major award shows, and more,” according to a statement issued by the cryptocurrency trading platform. “Prices update in real-time, allowing users to react instantly and express their opinions on what is going to happen next alongside their favorite entertainment developments.”

    The news arrived about a week after Crypto.com reached a similar accord with Trump Media and Technology Group (NASDAQ: DJT), making that company’s Truth Social the first social media platform to directly integrate yes/no derivatives.

    Robinhood Going Big on Entertainment Event Contracts

    Fans of award shows could also become fans of Robinhood because like Crypto.com, that trading house is rolling out a slew of entertainment-linked event contracts, including six apiece on the Grammys and the Oscars.

    Robinhood is also introducing approximately two dozen yes/no contracts on the Golden Globe Awards. There’s more. The trading platform, which offers event contracts through partnerships with Kalshi and ForecastEx, is also offering music-linked event contracts and derivatives tied to people, including Time’s person of the year and the winner of the Miss Universe pageant.

    There are some company-specific contracts, too, including one tied to the contentious debate on Elon Musk’s Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) compensation package and another on the possibility of OpenAI potentially raising the cost of ChatGPT this year. Other new contracts on the platform are linked directly to AI events, science and health, and space.

    Last month, the financial services firm said it planned to add over 100 new event contracts in the coming weeks, some of which will pertain to sports.

    Speaking of Sports…

    Neither the Crypto.com nor the Robinhood announcements contain any talk of sports event contracts and that may be design. Prediction markets operated largely unfettered prior to offering sports derivatives — a move that has since invited a spate of state-level legal challenges.

    Crypto.com and Robinhood haven’t spared on that front. The former recently agreed to halt its sports menu in Nevada while the latter is tussling with several states regarding sports derivatives. States argue the contracts are too close to sports wagering, meaning prediction market operators should gaming licenses in those jurisdictions, which they don’t.

    Add it all up and it could be shrewd of Crypto.com and Robinhood to expand their yes/no offerings outside of sports, particularly in the entertainment/pop culture arena because that could generate more trading without inviting regulatory challenges. Maybe.

    Todd Shriber

    Source link

  • US sanctions North Korean bankers accused of laundering stolen cryptocurrency

    WASHINGTON — The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a group of bankers, financial institutions and others accused of laundering money from cyber crime schemes — money the Treasury Department says helps pay for North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

    Over the past three years, North Korean malware and social engineering schemes have diverted more than $3 billion, mostly in digital assets, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said, noting the sum is unmatched by any other foreign actor. An international report documented the scope of the problem in a 138-page report published last month.

    “North Korean state-sponsored hackers steal and launder money to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons program,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence John K. Hurley in a statement.

    The department said North Korea relies on a network of banking representatives, financial institutions, and shell companies in North Korea, China, Russia, and elsewhere to launder funds gained through IT worker fraud, heists of cryptocurrency, and sanctions evasion.

    The department in 2022 warned U.S. firms against hiring highly skilled North Koreans who obfuscate their identities to gain access to financial networks, often by posing as remote IT workers.

    Tuesday’s new measures were directed at eight people and two firms, including North Korean bankers, Jang Kuk Chol and Ho Jong Son. They are accused of helping to manage funds, including $5.3 million in cryptocurrency, on behalf of sanctioned First Credit Bank.

    Source link