Post · bonfire.cafe

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

Newsletter: Trump’s crypto empire attracts more foreign millions, the FHFA pushes crypto on mortgage lenders, and Mamdani’s mayoral primary win makes billionaires sweat.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-87/

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

#cryptocurrency #crypto #uspolitics #uspol

EthicalProfessor

@EthicalProfessor@mstdn.social · 10 months ago

@molly0xfff

That's one way to kill Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (and the federal govt?). Bankruptcy is coming.

Dan Morris

@coldfish@sfba.social · 10 months ago

@molly0xfff is this new? I literally just sent my mortgage broker at Rocket Mortgage the statements from my CoinBase account..... like 20 minutes ago.

Arena Cops 🇺🇦✌

@ArenaCops@infosec.exchange · 10 months ago

@molly0xfff LOL. The EU's having a new Anti-Money Laundering Authority.

So Trump will have to launder dirty & bloody money using crypto in the United States.

https://www.amla.europa.eu/index_en

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

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Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

For all Trump likes to talk about “America First” crypto, his businesses are looking very UAE-first. Trump’s World Liberty Financial has just secured a $100 million investment from the UAE-based Aqua 1 Foundation, which has leapfrogged Justin Sun in Trump’s pay-for-access leaderboard.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

Trump business interests
Aqua 1 Foundation, a United Arab Emirates-based crypto fund, has spent $100 million to acquire WLFI tokens, the token issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial Project, and cultivate a close relationship with the Trumps. They have just surpassed shady crypto billionaire Justin Sun and his $75 million investment to become the single largest holder of WLFI tokens.1 World Liberty also profited massively last month from a deal in which Emirati investment firm MGX used the company’s USD1 stablecoin to perform a $2 billion investment into Binance [I83]. In a press release, Aqua 1 claimed that they and World Liberty would work closely to “jointly identify and nurture high-potential blockchain projects”, and said that World Liberty “plans to support the launch of Aqua 1’s Aqua Fund — a UAE-domiciled investment fund ... dedicated to accelerating the Middle East’s digital economy transformation”.2 For all Trump likes to talk about “America First” crypto projects, his businesses are looking very UAE-first.

World Liberty also just announced a partnership with London-based Re7 Capital, a decentralized hedge fund backed by the Hong Kong multi-family office VMS Group. The partnership aims to increase USD1 uptake on BNB Chain, the blockchain run by Binance.3 Connections between Binance and Trump have already been controversial, with Democratic Senators Warren, Durbin, and Blumenthal writing a May letter requesting information on Trump’s connections to — Trump business interests Aqua 1 Foundation, a United Arab Emirates-based crypto fund, has spent $100 million to acquire WLFI tokens, the token issued by the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial Project, and cultivate a close relationship with the Trumps. They have just surpassed shady crypto billionaire Justin Sun and his $75 million investment to become the single largest holder of WLFI tokens.1 World Liberty also profited massively last month from a deal in which Emirati investment firm MGX used the company’s USD1 stablecoin to perform a $2 billion investment into Binance [I83]. In a press release, Aqua 1 claimed that they and World Liberty would work closely to “jointly identify and nurture high-potential blockchain projects”, and said that World Liberty “plans to support the launch of Aqua 1’s Aqua Fund — a UAE-domiciled investment fund ... dedicated to accelerating the Middle East’s digital economy transformation”.2 For all Trump likes to talk about “America First” crypto projects, his businesses are looking very UAE-first. World Liberty also just announced a partnership with London-based Re7 Capital, a decentralized hedge fund backed by the Hong Kong multi-family office VMS Group. The partnership aims to increase USD1 uptake on BNB Chain, the blockchain run by Binance.3 Connections between Binance and Trump have already been controversial, with Democratic Senators Warren, Durbin, and Blumenthal writing a May letter requesting information on Trump’s connections to

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

There’s been some reporting that Trump is pulling away from his crypto projects, but this isn’t supported by financial disclosures published on June 13.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

2 media

There have been rumblings that Trump has sold some of his stake in World Liberty as Democrats in Congress have tried to hold up crypto legislation over his substantial conflicts of interest. Most of this stems from an update to the fine print on World Liberty’s website which now says that the Trump family-owned DT Marks Defi LLC owns a 40% stake in World Liberty, down from the 60% it displayed previously.5 However, information on the World Liberty Financial site has regularly been wrong, and neither number matches the 75% ownership Trump declared in his most recent financial disclosures that were only just published on June 13, 2025.6

390
WLF Holdco LLC
Underlying Assets: Holds the only membership interest in World Liberty Financial, Inc (a Delaware nonstock corporation). Assigned certain economic rights to non-token sale revenues under service agreements between World Liberty Financial, Inc and its founders. (value of the economic rights is not ascertainable)
See line 391.
Location: Miami, FL
No
DT Marks Defi LLC: 75% & Third Parties: 25% — 390 WLF Holdco LLC Underlying Assets: Holds the only membership interest in World Liberty Financial, Inc (a Delaware nonstock corporation). Assigned certain economic rights to non-token sale revenues under service agreements between World Liberty Financial, Inc and its founders. (value of the economic rights is not ascertainable) See line 391. Location: Miami, FL No DT Marks Defi LLC: 75% & Third Parties: 25%

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

A reporter tried asking Trump directly if he might divest from his crypto businesses, and Trump repeated “I’m president” and rambled about China. So... that’s a no, I guess

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

3+ more replies

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

FHFA Director Bill Pulte has directed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments.”

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

4 media

On June 25, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pultea published a memo directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments.” The memo, Pulte said, came after he did some “significant studying”, and was aimed at satisfying Trump’s “vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.”9 Despite the official letterhead and Pulte ending his tweet with the Trumpian pseudo-judicial all-caps sign-off of “SO ORDERED”, as of five days after the post, Pulte’s directive does not actually appear on the FHFA’s list of official orders and may have solely been issued via Twitter.10

As the directive currently only orders the two companies to prepare a proposal, details on what this would ultimately look like are somewhat scarce. However, Pulte noted that any proposal should not require the cryptoassets to first be converted to dollars, and that only assets “that can be evidenced and stored on a U.S.-regulated centralized exchange subject to all applicable laws” should be considered. The latter is a somewhat controversial caveat for the “not your keys, not your coins” segment of the crypto populace, who view storing crypto on a centralized exchange as an unacceptable dereliction of control to the types of intermediaries crypto was supposed to make obsolete. — On June 25, Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pultea published a memo directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments.” The memo, Pulte said, came after he did some “significant studying”, and was aimed at satisfying Trump’s “vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world.”9 Despite the official letterhead and Pulte ending his tweet with the Trumpian pseudo-judicial all-caps sign-off of “SO ORDERED”, as of five days after the post, Pulte’s directive does not actually appear on the FHFA’s list of official orders and may have solely been issued via Twitter.10 As the directive currently only orders the two companies to prepare a proposal, details on what this would ultimately look like are somewhat scarce. However, Pulte noted that any proposal should not require the cryptoassets to first be converted to dollars, and that only assets “that can be evidenced and stored on a U.S.-regulated centralized exchange subject to all applicable laws” should be considered. The latter is a somewhat controversial caveat for the “not your keys, not your coins” segment of the crypto populace, who view storing crypto on a centralized exchange as an unacceptable dereliction of control to the types of intermediaries crypto was supposed to make obsolete.

Tweet by Bill Pulte: After significant studying, and in keeping with President Trump’s vision to make the United States the crypto capital of the world, today I ordered the Great Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to prepare their businesses to count cryptocurrency as an asset for a mortgage. SO ORDERED

Though any move in this direction is still in its early stages, the tweet is another attempt by the Trump administration to integrate crypto into one of the most central parts of the American economy, and one where instability has particular potential to inflict massive consequences on everyday people. Many interpret Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention of bitcoin as a direct response to the 2008 financial crisis, and his inscription of the headline “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on the brink of second bailout for banks” into the bitcoin blockchain’s genesis block as a signal of his anger at government intervention and the failures of big banks.

Now, bitcoin and other cryptoassets are increasingly threatening to themselves introduce new instability. Some other companies have also gone beyond just considering crypto holdings as reserve assets when determining mortgage suitability, as is indicated by this memo, with Coinbase recommending people use their crypto borrowing program to borrow money to pay their mortgages,11 and other crypto companies such as Milo offering high-interest mortgages with crypto collateral. Milo has also expressed interest in securitizing their crypto loans in the future, because when have securities backed by high-risk mortgages ever gone wrong in the past?12

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

Judge Analisa Torres has rejected the joint request by the SEC and Ripple to lift the permanent injunction and reduce Ripple’s $125 million penalty to only $50 million. Ripple has opted to walk away rather than continue their ongoing appeal.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

SEC
Federal Judge Analisa Torres rejected the joint request by Ripple and the SEC to lift the August 2024 permanent injunction ordering Ripple to obey securities laws and reduce the $125 million penalty to only $50 million [I63]. This outcome is no huge surprise given Torres’ previous skepticism towards a malformed request to do the same thing [I84]. Torres elaborated:16

Not that long ago, the SEC made a compelling case that the public interest weighed heavily in favor of a permanent injunction and a substantial civil penalty. ... First, a penalty was necessary because Ripple had violated the law. ... Second, the SEC pressed for a permanent injunction because Ripple’s misconduct was reckless and likely to continue. ... None of this has changed—and the parties hardly pretend that it has. Nevertheless, they now claim that it is in the public interest to cut the Civil Penalty by sixty percent and vacate the permanent injunction entered less than a year ago.
Torres essentially left Ripple with two options: accept the earlier penalties and walk away, or continue fighting to have the judgment overturned on appeal. Ripple chose the latter the following day, dropping its cross appeal against the SEC. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also wrote that they still expected the SEC to drop their appeal as well, which was filed before Trump took office and which sought penalties closer to the nearly $2 billion originally requested by the agency.17 — SEC Federal Judge Analisa Torres rejected the joint request by Ripple and the SEC to lift the August 2024 permanent injunction ordering Ripple to obey securities laws and reduce the $125 million penalty to only $50 million [I63]. This outcome is no huge surprise given Torres’ previous skepticism towards a malformed request to do the same thing [I84]. Torres elaborated:16 Not that long ago, the SEC made a compelling case that the public interest weighed heavily in favor of a permanent injunction and a substantial civil penalty. ... First, a penalty was necessary because Ripple had violated the law. ... Second, the SEC pressed for a permanent injunction because Ripple’s misconduct was reckless and likely to continue. ... None of this has changed—and the parties hardly pretend that it has. Nevertheless, they now claim that it is in the public interest to cut the Civil Penalty by sixty percent and vacate the permanent injunction entered less than a year ago. Torres essentially left Ripple with two options: accept the earlier penalties and walk away, or continue fighting to have the judgment overturned on appeal. Ripple chose the latter the following day, dropping its cross appeal against the SEC. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also wrote that they still expected the SEC to drop their appeal as well, which was filed before Trump took office and which sought penalties closer to the nearly $2 billion originally requested by the agency.17

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

Crypto super PACs spent $1 million to back Democrat James Walkinshaw in the Virginia special election to replace Rep. Gerry Connolly. While Connolly was a staunch crypto skeptic, Walkinshaw’s promise to “embrace the next generation of technology” earned him the support of the crypto lobby.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol

In elections and political influence
Crypto super PACs have just spent $1 million to back Democrat James Walkinshaw in the Virginia special election to replace Representative Gerry Connolly, the former Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee who died in May.18 Walkinshaw, a longtime chief of staff for Connolly, won the “firehouse primary” with about 60% of the vote.19 Connolly had been a staunch opponent of crypto, recently opposing Trump’s efforts to establish a strategic crypto reserve and blasting Trump’s memecoin as “open corruption”.2021 Walkinshaw, on the other hand, writes on his website that “we must embrace the next generation of technology”, including blockchain.22 — In elections and political influence Crypto super PACs have just spent $1 million to back Democrat James Walkinshaw in the Virginia special election to replace Representative Gerry Connolly, the former Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee who died in May.18 Walkinshaw, a longtime chief of staff for Connolly, won the “firehouse primary” with about 60% of the vote.19 Connolly had been a staunch opponent of crypto, recently opposing Trump’s efforts to establish a strategic crypto reserve and blasting Trump’s memecoin as “open corruption”.2021 Walkinshaw, on the other hand, writes on his website that “we must embrace the next generation of technology”, including blockchain.22

Molly White

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io · 10 months ago

I’m watching closely to see if crypto money will enter the NYC mayoral race, where crypto (and other) billionaires have been reacting with horror at Mamdani’s win.

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpolitics #USpol