crypto

Extremely tangled diagram depicting relationships between LLCs, major companies, the Trump family, Bill Zanker and various other individuals, and various crypto projects including the $TRUMP memecoin, NFTs, World Liberty Financial, etc.

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121d

It's no coincidence that the Fairshake crypto super PAC has timed its press release announcing they have $140 million ready for the midterms as Congress is considering three crypto bills during "Crypto Week". Pass our bills, or we will spend millions against you in the midterms.

#surveillance #crypto #cryptocurrency #USpol #USpolitics

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126d

A couple of years ago I wrote a tweet thread about how I'd begun to see people in the crypto and finreg spaces expressing excitement about the traceability of cryptocurrencies.

Thinking back to it as I watch Senators and crypto industry executives talk about how delightfully traceable public blockchains are. No pesky warrant required!

Molly White
@molly0xFFF
1:33 PM · Feb 14, 2023
the past ~month or so i've suddenly started seeing a bunch of people in crypto and in the financial regulatory/enforcement world who are unironically excited about crypto because of the financial surveillance it could empower, and that scares the shit out of me

the other day i was listening to a conversation about how "algorithms" could detect criminal activity occurring on public ledgers in real time to automatically alert law enforcement, or be programmed into the money itself to stop transactions.

[Screenshot of a text message: "or I'm going to move to a cabin in the woods with a faraday cage built around it"]

anyone know any good welders?

i run into people somewhat regularly who think that because i don't like crypto, i support unfettered government/LEO surveillance of personal finances.

like, no, that's part of WHY i don't like crypto

Senator Tim Scott: And let's set the record straight. Crypto isn't lawless, it's traceable. In fact, crypto companies are helping law enforcement track illicit activity with greater precision than traditional finance allows.

Jonathan Levin, Chainalysis CEO: But the unprecedented visibility offered by the public blockchain has to be factored into the assessment of both activity and risk. With the right tools, the public ledger becomes a powerful resource for market participants, regulators, and law enforcement to protect financial integrity. ... Getting the right regulations in place will ... require the government to leverage the transparency and available real-time information for effective supervision.

Senator Tim Scott: There's a common belief that money laundering is easy with crypto, but the truth is it's not. Blockchain technology creates a permanent traceable ledger that can help law enforcement catch those bad actors. I've said it before, so I'll say it again: It's far easier to track something that has a digital footprint than something that does not.

Senator Britt: And transactions on the blockchain offer a unique ability for tracing and tracking, including analyzing trends on the ledger.

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO: I think the good news has been in many cases they don't often understand how traceable and trackable that actually is and it's more trackable than,

https://www.followthecrypto.org/quidproquo

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148d

Quid pro quo between cryptocurrency firms, the Trump administration, and the Trump family’s crypto ventures.

Quid pro quo
Cryptocurrency companies are reaping the benefits of their contributions to Trump and other pro-crypto politicians.
Company Benefit Contribution
Justin Sun and Tron
SEC enforcement case stayed pending resolution
Criminal investigation possibly paused
$75 million to purchase WLFI tokens from Trump-owned World Liberty Financial
$37.7 million to purchase $TRUMP memecoins (via HTX)
Listed USD1 for trading on HTX
Cumberland DRW
SEC enforcement case dismissed with prejudice
$100 million investment into Trump-owned Trump Media & Technology Group
$100,000 to crypto-focused super PACs
Ripple
SEC enforcement case stayed pending resolution
Joint request to return $75 million of previous SEC fine to Ripple
$73 million to crypto-focused super PACs
$5 million to Trump inauguration fund
Coinbase
SEC enforcement case dismissed with prejudice
Relaunched bitcoin borrowing program previously shut down after SEC warnings
$75 million to crypto-focused super PACs
$1 million to Senate super PACs
$1 million to Trump inauguration fund
Sponsored Trump birthday military parade
Andreessen Horowitz
Four Andreessen Horowitz employees installed in formal or informal positions of influence at the White House
$70 million to crypto-focused super PACs
$5.35 million to Trump super PACs
Gemini
SEC enforcement case stayed pending reslution
SEC investigation ended with no action
$4.9 million t

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-86/

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147d

Newsletter: Issue 86 – State power sponsored by Coinbase

Coinbase’s sponsorship of Trump’s military parade angered some in the crypto world, who described the move as “deeply disturbing” and “an insult to everything our industry stands for”. But this is only the latest example of crypto companies aligning with state power.

Earlier this month, the cryptocurrency firm Ripple made a $9.4 million contribution to the San Francisco Police Department to fund a surveillance center outfitted with drones. “We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones,” enthused a SFPD Captain about the donation.

In the White House
Trump held his $40 million birthday boy military parade on June 14, and apparently offset the cost at least somewhat with contributions from the likes of Coinbase. This didn’t exactly sit well with some of the increasingly rare breed of crypto believers who still champion the technology’s early anti-establishment values.

“What Coinbase did by sponsoring this army parade feels like an insult to everything our industry stands for. Crypto emerged from ideals of decentralization, individual sovereignty, and freedom from oppressive state control—not to funnel resources into institutions whose core purpose involves violence and ending lives,” wrote one crypto enthusiast.10 Another wrote, “I entered the crypto world in 2017 to stand against late stage capitalism...not help crypto bros fund it.”11 Megan Knab, CEO of a crypto payroll company, responded to the sponsorship by eulogizing the industry’s cypherpunk roots in a CoinDesk op-ed, where she wrote: “The ethos of crypto—the cypherpunk values that got us here—is being diluted, co-opted, and in some cases, directly betrayed.”12

This is only the most recent in a rapidly growing list of examples of crypto companies and their executives aligning with state power. Earlier this month, Ripple made a contribution worth $9.4 million to the San Francisco Police Department to establish a new surveillance center that will operate a fleet of drones, surveillance cameras, and license plate readers. “We are proud to help usher in a new era of accountability,” said Ripple CEO Chris Larsen in a statement about the contribution.13 “We’re going to be covering the entire city with drones,” enthused SFPD Captain Thomas MacGuire.14

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-88/

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125d

Newsletter: Crypto firms hope putting a blockchain veneer on traditional equities will allow them to sidestep lessons learned in the 1929 Wall Street crash, crypto firms look to become banks, and Congress celebrates crypto surveillance while claiming to outlaw it

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145d

i believe a thank you is in order for the sponsors of today's military action

#iran #israel #coinbase #trump #crypto #uspol #uspolitics

Edited 145d ago

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141d

'Not going to tell you,' Bondi flips out & refuses to answer after being pressed by Sen Merkley.

On Trump's #crypto scheme, AG Bondi became angry & refused to answer Qs on whether foreign influence is affecting decisions being made by Trump.

"Many folks who attended this dinner were buying those claims bc they wanted to influence policy." He listed suspicious foreign characters at the dinner. “Don't you think the American people have a right to know?"
#Corruption #USPol
https://www.rawstory.com/pam-bondi-2672435040/

Edited 141d ago

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141d

Federal Housing Finance Agency Director William 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”

#crypto #cryptocurrency #USpol #US politics

Order Issuing Directive to Consider Cryptocurrency as an Asset for Single-Family Loans Delivered to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
WHEREAS, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) maintain a pivotal role in the U.S. housing finance system by providing stability and liquidity to the secondary market for residential mortgages through prudent standards to help ensure sustainable, long-term homeownership.
WHEREAS, cryptocurrency is an emerging asset class that may offer an opportunity to build wealth outside of the stock and bond markets.
WHEREAS, cryptocurrency has not typically been considered in the mortgage risk assessment process for mortgage loans delivered to the Enterprises, without converting the cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars prior to loan closing.
WHEREAS, U.S. Federal Housing FHFA has now determined that the consideration of additional borrower assets in the Enterprises' single-family mortgage loan risk assessments may enable the Enterprises to assess the full spectrum of asset information available for reserves and to facilitate sustainable homeownership to creditworthy borrowers.
NOW THEREFORE, U.S. Federal Housing FHFA, as conservator, hereby directs each Enterprise to prepare a proposal for consideration of cryptocurrency as an asset for reserves in their respective single-family mortgage loan risk assessments, without conversion of said cryptocurrency to U.S. doll

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/02/us/politics/donor-list-suggests-scale-of-trumps-pay-for-access-operation.html

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102d

The scale of Trump's pay-for-access scheme outlined by the Times is mindblowing. Crypto contributions resulting in business deals with the Trump family crypto businesses, oil companies buying influence and later reaping benefits from friendly policies, and a $1 million pardon.

When the cryptocurrency entrepreneur Eric Schiermeyer heard that President Trump was holding small group dinners with major donors, he saw opportunity.
Mr. Schiermeyer reached out to a lobbyist with connections in Mr. Trump’s orbit, who arranged for him to attend a dinner with the president at his private Mar-a-Lago club on March 1 in exchange for donations to a pro-Trump PAC called MAGA Inc. totaling $1 million.
The personal and corporate donations were among dozens of seven- and eight-figure contributions to MAGA Inc. from crypto and other interests revealed in a campaign finance filing on Thursday night that hinted at the access Mr. Trump accords those willing to pay.
At the dinner, Mr. Schiermeyer, who had never given a federal political donation before, presented an idea for a cryptocurrency called “U.S.A. Token” that would be distributed to every citizen, according to interviews and a flier he distributed to attendees that sets out details of the proposal. He hoped it could be supported through a federal contract with his company.

Cryptocurrency interests, which have benefited from the Trump administration’s dismantling of a yearslong government crackdown and from the Trump family’s financial interest in the industry, appear to have been the most generous industry, accounting for nearly $45 million in donations to MAGA Inc.An affiliate of the exchange Crypto.com gave $10 million, while the crypto services company Blockchain.com donated $5 million. The venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who are heavily invested in crypto, gave $3 million each. Ondo Finance, which has a partnership with the Trump family’s crypto company, donated $2.1 million to MAGA Inc., on top of $1 million to Mr. Trump’s inauguration.

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119d

The House has passed the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill, sending it to Trump's desk where he will sign it. They've also passed the CLARITY Act crypto market structure bill and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, both of which still need to go to the Senate.

#Trump #broligarchy
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/technology/crypto-industry-milestone-legislation.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Edited 119d ago

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119d

#Crypto Industry Reaches Milestone With Passage of First Major #Bill

After a week of squabbling in Washington, the #cryptocurrency industry secured one of its primary legislative objectives & made progress toward a second one.

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119d

FT: "Donald Trump is preparing to open the $9tn US retirement market to cryptocurrency investments ..."

Trump is seeking to direct Americans' retirement funds to a sector in which he and his family are heavily invested.

https://www.ft.com/content/07906211-5ab8-4917-bcad-5397c0bc3170

#cryptography #crypto #security #infosec

Edited 119d ago

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140d

This week's net.wars, "Revival", ponders the purported death of Bluesky and the company town potential of large companies exploring stablecoins: https://netwars.pelicancrossing.net/2025/06/27/revival/ #NetWars #SocialMedia #Crypto

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141d

Great, informative writeup of Cryptographic Gotchas: https://gotchas.salusa.dev/

Lots of fantastic references and links in there, too.

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117d

I made this QR code for my Arweave address if any crypto bros feel like supporting my work 😄

#Crypto #Arweave #Odysee

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113d

Newsletter: Crypto bills have passed the House with “2, 3, 4 o’clock” phone calls from Trump to give “a little love” to Republican holdouts, $6.9 million in crypto lobbying, and a $141 million midterm threat. The bills feature few consumer protections and destabilizing loopholes.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-89/

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

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135d

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.

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112d

Sundog, a memecoin by crypto billionaire Justin Sun, just posted a meme depicting its mascot controlling the White House. Sun has spent (or will shortly spend) a total of $213 million on Trump-connected crypto projects.

h/t @cryptadamist