Tag Archives: Bitcoin

The Daily Beast reports: The Trump family has dived even deeper into the crypto world, as the president’s two oldest sons get into the mining game. After President Donald Trump launched a memecoin in January and a stablecoin earlier this month via World Liberty Financial, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are turning prospectors as they bolster the Trump digital currency …

Business Insider reports: Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, the parents of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), are reportedly pursuing a presidential pardon from Donald Trump, according to Bloomberg. SBF was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March 2024 after being convicted of multiple fraud charges. Despite their son’s massive fall from grace, his parents have met with individuals …

Ars Technica reports: A British judge ruled against a man who wants to excavate a landfill where he says a hard drive with access to thousands of bitcoins was mistakenly dumped over 11 years ago. Since 2013, James Howells has been hoping to recover a laptop hard drive that he says contains the private key for cryptocurrency which he says …

Ars Technica reports: Craig Wright, the man who claims he invented bitcoin and has been filing lawsuits asserting intellectual property rights, was sentenced to a year in prison yesterday for committing contempt of court. The sentence is suspended and can be enforced if Wright continues violating court rulings—but he may be able to avoid imprisonment by staying away from countries …

Mediaite reports: Chris Hayes broke down a plan by Republican legislators to transfer billions of dollars of taxpayer money to owners of Bitcoin in exchange for their holdings. At issue is a bill introduced by Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) that, if enacted, would require the U.S. Treasury to buy one million Bitcoins over five years and be held for at …

The Hill reports: Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the billionaire twin brothers who co-founded the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, said they each donated $1 million in bitcoin to former President Trump. “Over the past few years, the Biden Administration has openly declared war against crypto,” Tyler Winklevoss posted on the social platform X. “It has weaponized multiple government agencies to bully, harass, …

From the Justice Department: Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that RYAN SALAME was sentenced today to 90 months in prison. SALAME previously pled guilty to conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business before U.S. District Judge Lewis …

The New York Times reports: Sam Bankman-Fried, the former cryptocurrency mogul who was convicted of fraud, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday, capping an extraordinary saga that upended the multi-trillion-dollar crypto industry and became a cautionary tale of greed and hubris. Mr. Bankman-Fried’s sentence was shorter than the 40 to 50 years that federal prosecutors had recommended, …

Law & Crime reports: Prosecutors said they want fallen ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried sent to prison for up to half a century, less than the probation department’s recommended 110 years and a lot more than what his defense attorney wants — 6 1/2 years max. In the government’s 116-page sentencing memo, prosecutors said a sentence of between 40 and 50 …

From the Energy Department: Electricity demand associated with U.S. cryptocurrency mining operations in the United States has grown very rapidly over the last several years. Our preliminary estimates suggest that annual electricity use from cryptocurrency mining probably represents from 0.6% to 2.3% of U.S. electricity consumption. This additional electricity use has drawn the attention of policymakers and grid planners concerned …

The Washington Post reports: A British resident accused of using the dark web to sell illicit drugs around the world has agreed to surrender bitcoin valued at hundreds of millions in what officials said is believed to be the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in the history of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Banmeet Singh, 40, who was extradited from the United …

The Denver Post reports: Speaking to online followers Aug. 22, 2022, Rev. Eli Regalado had a divine message. “It was last October that the Lord brought this cryptocurrency to me. He said, ‘Take this to my people for a wealth transfer.’ It has been confirmed a hundred times since,” the pastor said, according to a lawsuit filed in Denver this …

Ars Technica reports: An actor who was hired to pretend to be the highly qualified CEO of a shady, collapsed cryptocurrency hedge fund called HyperVerse has apologized after a YouTuber unmasked his real identity last week. An Englishman currently living in Thailand, Stephen Harrison confirmed that HyperVerse hired him to pose as CEO Steven Reece Lewis. Harrison told The Guardian …

The Hill reports: The Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) account on the platform formerly known as Twitter was breached Tuesday, the agency said, after it appeared to announce the approval of several bitcoin investment funds. The SEC’s account on X posted a message earlier Tuesday — featuring a picture of SEC Chairman Gary Gensler — announcing the approval of exchange-traded …

Politico reports: A trio of super PACs backed by cryptocurrency executives and investors said Monday that they’ve raised $78 million as part of a major new push to influence the 2024 elections. The campaign, which has support from venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz, U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase and Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, marks of a revival of the digital asset …

Bloomberg News reports: In February 2019, Binance Holdings Ltd.’s then-Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim acknowledged that the cryptocurrency exchange was being used to funnel money to Hamas, explaining to a colleague that terrorists normally sent “small sums.” That apparently nonchalant attitude caught up with Binance and its chief executive officer, Changpeng Zhao [photo], on Tuesday. In announcing $4.3 billion in …

Bloomberg News reports: Binance Holdings Ltd.’s Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao arrived in Seattle federal court Tuesday to plead guilty to anti-money laundering charges under a sweeping deal worked out with the Justice Department designed to keep the company operating. Zhao agreed to step down as part of the settlement, which included the Treasury Department and the Commodity Futures Trading …

Reuters reports: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Thursday of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange in one of the biggest financial frauds on record, a verdict that cemented the 31-year-old former billionaire’s fall from grace. A 12-member jury in Manhattan federal court convicted Bankman-Fried on all seven counts he faced after a monthlong trial in …

CBS News reports: As a bitcoin mining enterprise, Riot Platforms runs thousands of computers in the energy-guzzling pursuit of minting digital currency. Recently, however, the company got big bucks from Texas to lower the mining operation’s electricity usage. Riot said on Wednesday that the state’s power grid operator paid the company $31.7 million in energy credits in August — or …

Reuters reports: A U.S judge on Friday revoked Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail, after finding probable cause that the indicted founder of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange tampered with witnesses at least twice. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan announced the decision at a hearing in federal court in Manhattan, less than two months before the scheduled October fraud trial. He rejected a …