(Sep 9 article)
#Crypto#BlockChain
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/christies-helped-drive-the-art-worlds-nft-craze-now-the-auction-house-is-shutting-down-its-digital-art-division-180987306/
#Tag
Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw has been elected to the seat vacated by Gerry Connolly. He received $1 million in backing from a pro-crypto PAC, which was the largest outside spender in his race.
Former FTX executive Ryan Salame, currently serving a 7.5 year prison sentence for campaign finance and unlicensed money transmitting convictions, is being sued by the FTX estate for allegedly transferring assets to his wife to avoid recovery by the FTX estate.
The SEC has disclosed that a year’s worth of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages were inadvertently permanently deleted. I imagine this must be rather infuriating news for the dozens of companies that have paid tens of millions of dollars apiece in fines to the SEC over recordkeeping failures.
Virginia Democrat James Walkinshaw has been elected to the seat vacated by Gerry Connolly. He received $1 million in backing from a pro-crypto PAC, which was the largest outside spender in his race.
CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz has published messages with the Winklevoss twins, accusing them of blackballing him with President Trump after he failed to immediately and enthusiastically champion their grievances.
The SEC has disclosed that a year’s worth of former Chair Gary Gensler’s text messages were inadvertently permanently deleted. I imagine this must be rather infuriating news for the dozens of companies that have paid tens of millions of dollars apiece in fines to the SEC over recordkeeping failures.
As an aside, one of my favorite pasttimes these days is opening up the currently CFTC-regulated Kalshi and trying to imagine who is “legitimately hedging” their business activities in markets like these ones. (Everyone needs a hobby, okay?)
CFTC Chair nominee Brian Quintenz has published messages with the Winklevoss twins, accusing them of blackballing him with President Trump after he failed to immediately and enthusiastically champion their grievances.
The CFTC has issued a no-action letter greenlighting Polymarket to start opening up to US customers. Thank goodness: in the future, when Treasury Sec Scott Bessent threatens to punch FHFA director Bill Pulte in the face, US speculators will be able to gamble on the likelihood that Bessent actually throws a punch.
The CFTC has issued a no-action letter greenlighting Polymarket to start opening up to US customers. Thank goodness: in the future, when Treasury Sec Scott Bessent threatens to punch FHFA director Bill Pulte in the face, US speculators will be able to gamble on the likelihood that Bessent actually throws a punch.
As an aside, one of my favorite pasttimes these days is opening up the currently CFTC-regulated Kalshi and trying to imagine who is “legitimately hedging” their business activities in markets like these ones. (Everyone needs a hobby, okay?)
Pro-crypto Senate Democrats have signaled they’re willing to work on a market structure bill, but have made some demands — including a prohibition on elected officials profiting from crypto projects.
Democrats have made these demands in the past, but typically not the ones who have provided the swing votes for crypto legislation. Now, 11 of 18 Senators who voted for GENIUS have signed on to a letter demanding these changes.
And the letter was authored by Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who received $10 million from the crypto lobby in 2024. It’s certainly possible that some demands will be dropped during negotiations, but this strikes me as the strongest pushback we’ve seen thus far from pro-crypto Senate Dems.
The CFTC has issued a no-action letter greenlighting Polymarket to start opening up to US customers. Thank goodness: in the future, when Treasury Sec Scott Bessent threatens to punch FHFA director Bill Pulte in the face, US speculators will be able to gamble on the likelihood that Bessent actually throws a punch.
The Senate published a new discussion draft of their market structure legislation. Senator Warren has issued a statement that the newest proposal “reportedly reflects secret feedback” from the crypto industry that Republicans have refused to share.
Pro-crypto Senate Democrats have signaled they’re willing to work on a market structure bill, but have made some demands — including a prohibition on elected officials profiting from crypto projects.
Democrats have made these demands in the past, but typically not the ones who have provided the swing votes for crypto legislation. Now, 11 of 18 Senators who voted for GENIUS have signed on to a letter demanding these changes.
And the letter was authored by Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who received $10 million from the crypto lobby in 2024. It’s certainly possible that some demands will be dropped during negotiations, but this strikes me as the strongest pushback we’ve seen thus far from pro-crypto Senate Dems.
The Nasdaq has determined that Eric Trump should not serve on the board of ALT5 Sigma, a treasury company that’s set to buy $750 million WLFI tokens, benefiting him and his family to the tune of $500 million. I guess they have to draw the line somewhere.
The Senate published a new discussion draft of their market structure legislation. Senator Warren has issued a statement that the newest proposal “reportedly reflects secret feedback” from the crypto industry that Republicans have refused to share.
The World Liberty project, which the Trump sons say they created to fight “debanking”, is getting some flak for freezing holders’ tokens — including those belonging to some of their biggest backers, like billionaire Justin Sun.
The Nasdaq has determined that Eric Trump should not serve on the board of ALT5 Sigma, a treasury company that’s set to buy $750 million WLFI tokens, benefiting him and his family to the tune of $500 million. I guess they have to draw the line somewhere.
The Trump family scored huge windfalls this week as WLFI became available for trading, and American Bitcoin went public. Their WLFI stake has been reported at multi-billions of dollars, though this valuation suffers from the usual crypto pricing issues I’ve written about before.
The World Liberty project, which the Trump sons say they created to fight “debanking”, is getting some flak for freezing holders’ tokens — including those belonging to some of their biggest backers, like billionaire Justin Sun.
Newsletter: The Trumps “debank” major customers from their “anti-debanking” cryptocurrency venture, and a CFTC nominee says the Winklevosses are blackballing him
The Trump family scored huge windfalls this week as WLFI became available for trading, and American Bitcoin went public. Their WLFI stake has been reported at multi-billions of dollars, though this valuation suffers from the usual crypto pricing issues I’ve written about before.
Newsletter: The Trumps “debank” major customers from their “anti-debanking” cryptocurrency venture, and a CFTC nominee says the Winklevosses are blackballing him
Crypto billionaire Justin Sun’s renewed motion for a temporary restraining order in his lawsuit against Bloomberg seems to confirm my view that the lawsuit was sparked by the disclosure that he controls 63% of the supply of TRX, the token issued by his Tron company.
Sun and Bloomberg had been “engaged in discussions that may moot the emergency relief”, but it sounds like Sun wanted more than they were willing to agree to.
My past reporting: https://www.citationneeded.news/justin-sun-bloomberg-lawsuit/
TRO motion: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ded.90290/gov.uscourts.ded.90290.18.0_1.pdf
The Trumps' World Liberty Financial project has frozen WLFI tokens in wallet addresses belonging to Justin Sun that contain ~$100 million (on paper) in unlocked WLFI. Sun is a major backer of the project, which the Trumps say they founded to stop "debanking".
The freeze apparently came after Sun transferred around ~$9M of his holdings to Binance.
The World Liberty team has been desperately trying to prevent the WLFI price from sinking, including by burning tokens to boost the price. They may be concerned that whales like Sun could further depress the token price by cashing out.
The Trumps' World Liberty Financial project has frozen WLFI tokens in wallet addresses belonging to Justin Sun that contain ~$100 million (on paper) in unlocked WLFI. Sun is a major backer of the project, which the Trumps say they founded to stop "debanking".
The freeze apparently came after Sun transferred around ~$9M of his holdings to Binance.
The World Liberty team has been desperately trying to prevent the WLFI price from sinking, including by burning tokens to boost the price. They may be concerned that whales like Sun could further depress the token price by cashing out.
i'm sure it's just a coincidence that the bitcoin wallet that #OFAC just sanctioned because it was being used by Russian and North Korean weapons programs just so happened to be sending all its bitcoins to crypto exchanges belonging to Trump's Chinese business partners: Justin Sun's #HTX and Changpeng Zhao's #Binance.
* presser: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0230
* sanctioned entities: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0230
* wallet: https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/1HmqvgSXUVES1jn4TQPzk9dxo1NE8wim2T
#sanctions #russia #putin #ukraine#Ukrainewar#DPRK#NorthKorea#kimJongUn #weapons #armstrafficking #bitcoin #crypto #uspol#corruption #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #trump#WLFI#JustinSun #sanctions #sanctionsEvasion
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