@stux@mstdn.social avatar stux , to random

Largest Bribe in History

The largest bribe...so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RE2pm3omzMI

@RememberUsAlways@newsie.social avatar RememberUsAlways , to random

I don't know who needs to hear this but is beyond your personal views on crime. I don't know what the bottom of the crypto markets look like in this cycle but I do know you'll see the market collapse at the bottom before the top IMHO.

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

Binance bitcoin bailout

ALT
molly0xfff OP ,
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

it does not seem to me to bode well that they’re getting this nervous when the bitcoin price hasn’t even dropped below $80,000

@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

As ICE terrorizes communities, crypto executives who spent years posting about freedom have gone conspicuously silent. But behind the scenes, they’ve contributed at least $315 million — more than double their record 2024 spending — to elect more lawmakers to enable this administration.

https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-100/

molly0xfff OP ,
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

For years, crypto executives have touted cryptocurrency’s supposed anti-authoritarian and human rights credentials. But where are they when their beloved president claims Alex Pretti’s lawful gun ownership justified his killing, or when ICE leaders tell subordinates to enter homes without warrants?

“We will hold governments accountable if we see bad activity, to protect your rights.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, May 2025 “I stand for human rights and believe that evil prevails when good men do nothing.” Kraken founder and chairman Jesse Powell, February 2022 “It's also hard to believe how some people want to make justice a political issue. It’s a human rights and dignity issue.” Gemini co-founder and president Tyler Winklevoss, June 2020 “It’s interesting to see who is standing up in favor of unlimited, unaccountable, un-appeal-able, unconstitutional power wielded by unelected bureaucrats and rogue politicians.” Andreessen Horowitz general partner Marc Andreessen, December 2024 “Freedom of all kinds is worth fighting for - economic, speech, due process, etc.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, May 202
And yet now these voices are silent on the authoritarianism unfolding before us. Where are their defenses of the Constitution when the president claims Pretti’s lawful gun ownership justified his killing,6 or when ICE leaders tell subordinates to enter homes without warrants?7 Where are their warnings about surveillance states now that ICE is photographing protesters for their “domestic terrorist” lists and Palantir is contracted by the government to build databases of people living in the US they can target for raids?8 In 2022, they were incensed when Canadian authorities froze bank accounts belonging to truckers protesting vaccine mandates (and delighted for the opportunity to promote crypto as an alternative funding mechanism) — but now, when ICE agents murder bystanders and invent pretexts that footage shows are false, where is the righteous outcry against state violence towards those exercising their right to protest?

ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar
    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    Amid all this, the crypto industry has amassed at least $315 million to spend in the midterms — more than double their recordbreaking 2024 spending that helped install Trump and members of Congress who either support his atrocities or are too craven to do anything about them.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The Fairshake PAC timed a press blitz about the nearly $200 million they’re brandishing towards members of Congress just ahead of a Senate Ag vote on crypto market structure. It passed, and amendments to address Trump’s crypto corruption or prohibit bailouts of crypto firms were shot down.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The crypto industry’s “educational nonprofit” has also launched an initiative to fund Congressional staff positions after participants go through weeks of “training” on “emerging technologies like crypto, AI, biotech, and defense tech”.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The SEC has dismissed with prejudice an enforcement action against the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini crypto exchange. This comes after the Winklevosses contributed $4.4 million to Trump, backed his sons’ ventures, and committed $21 million to elect pro-Trump, pro-crypto lawmakers.

    To date, the SEC has paused, dismissed, or otherwise ended crypto lawsuits or investigations against Aave, Binance, Coinbase, ConsenSys, Crypto​.com, Cumberland DRW, Dragonchain, Gemini (twice), Hex, Immutable, Kraken, Ondoe, OpenSea, PayPal, Ripple, Robinhood, Tron, Uniswap, Yuga Labs, and Zcash.

    While “but we gave the money back” isn’t normally a successful defense (just ask Sam Bankman-Fried), contributing around $4.4 million to Trump’s campaign,27 donating an undisclosed amount to Trump’s ballroom project,28 spending $1 million to be among the first members of the Trump family-run Executive Branch club,29 investing in Donald Trump Jr.’s American Bitcoin venture,30 and committing $22 million to political projects backing pro-Trump crypto advocates in the midterms seems to have gone a long way. The SEC case was paused back in April [I81], and, as I wrote then, “it’s widely understood that these [pauses] mark the end of SEC scrutiny for these companies.” Two months later, as the Winklevoss twins stood behind Trump in the Oval Office as he signed the GENIUS Act stablecoin bill, Trump remarked about the crypto industry: “I got you guys out of so much trouble”. Thanking the Winklevosses specifically, he added: “They’ve got plenty of cash, and it’s great that you’re on our side.” [I89]
    The dismissal of the Gemini Earn enforcement action adds to a long list of crypto-focused cases and investigations that the SEC has paused, dismissed, or otherwise ended. That list also includes: Aave [I99], Binance [I85], Coinbase [I78], ConsenSys [I78], Crypto.com [I81], Cumberland DRW [I79], Dragonchain,31 Gemini (a separate investigation) [I78], Hex [I82], Immutable [I80], Kraken [I79], Ondo Finance [I98], OpenSea [I78], PayPal [I83], Ripple [I80], Robinhood [I78], Tron [I78], Uniswap [I78], Yuga Labs [I79], and the ZCash Foundation [I99].

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    $40 million in seized crypto held by the US Marshals was stolen in 2024, and crypto sleuth zachxbt has now linked the thefts to the son of a contractor managing the agency's crypto assets. The incident has renewed concerns about the government's ability to manage its crypto holdings.

    Shockingly, Daghita’s father is reportedly Dean Daghita, the owner of an IT company called Command Services & Support (CMDSS). In November 2024, CMDSS began a contract with the US Marshals to provide management services for their seized crypto assets.16 The contract is still active. While Coinbase has since July 2024 managed what the Marshals call their “class 1” crypto assetsc — the most popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ether, and Tether — CMDSS was chosen to manage the “class 2” through “class 4” cryptocurrencies.d While it could be that the younger Daghita gained privileged information or access to the Marshals’ crypto wallets through his father, it’s not clear how that would have enabled thefts in the months prior to the contract award. I am hopeful that a FOIA request I filed with the Marshals earlier this week will shed some light on that. It’s also curious that many of the assets Lick siphoned from government wallets fall into the “class 1” category, which CMDSS is not involved in managing. The Marshals have declined to comment on the matter, citing ongoing investigations.17
    The incident has renewed concerns about the US government’s ability to prudently manage crypto. In 2022, a Department of Justice Inspector General report identified “challenges” in the Marshals’ crypto custody practices, including “lack of comprehensive inventory management” and “inadequate, incomplete, and conflicting policies and procedures”.18 Last year, the Marshals struggled to provide even an estimate of how much crypto they held. An IT contractor who was passed over for a contract with the Marshals explained to CoinDesk, “As far as I’m aware, the USMS is currently managing this with individual keystrokes in an Excel spreadsheet. ... They’re one bad day away from a billion-dollar mistake.”19 Later in 2024, the Marshals disclosed in response to a FOIA request that they held around 28,988 BTC (more than $2.5 billion at today’s prices), though they did not provide an accounting of their other tokens.20 After zachxbt’s allegations, a wallet linked to the thefts launched a “John Daghita” token, with the ticker $LICK, on the pump.fun memecoin launchpad. I couldn’t help but laugh when I read reporting from Cointelegraph that “The deployer of LICK held 40% of the total supply at launch, according to blockchain data visualization platform Bubblemaps, a level of concentration often viewed as a red flag in early-stage token launches.”21 I’m not sure the degree of concentration is really the primary red flag here.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • @infomaxkorea@mastodon.social avatar infomaxkorea Bot , to random

    Bitcoin tumbles 5.5% to trade below $85,000 amid heightened global risk aversion, signaling increased volatility in cryptocurrency markets.

    https://en.infomaxai.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=102891

    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , (edited ) to random

    House Oversight Democrats have published a Web3 is Going Great-style “Trump Family Digital Grift” counter
    https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/trump-family-corruption-tracker

    This goes with their recent staff report, “Professionalized Corruption: How Donald Trump is abusing power and accepting digital kickbacks from foreign and criminal interests to cash in on the presidency like never before”

    https://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/imo/media/doc/12026cryptoreport.pdf

    (The report cites my writing on Trump’s USD1 stablecoin, published here: https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-83/#trump-business-interests)

    ALT
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    Newsletter: Coinbase calls the shots in the Senate, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams faces rug pull allegations, and a crypto executive is breaking up with Trump

    https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-99/

    molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The crypto lobby wrote their dream bill. Senators proposed some amendments. Coinbase tweeted their disapproval, and Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott immediately canceled the markup. When you spend $130M, you expect to get exactly what you want.

    While mainstream news sources are often hesitant to draw cause and effect between two suspiciously timed events, it was too overt even for them, with the New York Times writing that Coinbase had “scuttled” the vote.2 Coinbase further emphasized its degree of control over the Senate when CEO Brian Armstrong stated in an interview with CNBC, “We’ve got a chance to do a new draft and hopefully get back into a markup in a few weeks” — speaking as if Coinbase, not Congress, controlled both the drafting process and legislative calendar.
    This is nothing new — just the latest demonstration of the crypto industry’s power over Congress after it spent over $130 million installing allies in the 2024 election. Within weeks, House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) made the new power dynamic explicit when he said how crypto legislation was being drafted in “tripartisan” fashion, with the crypto industry forming the new third political wing of Congress [I76].
    In an alternate universe, Congress might be focused on passing laws that don’t elevate the interests of corporations and oligarchs above the everyman. Ones that ensure the stability of the American financial system, protect consumers, address officeholder ethics concerns, and prevent financial crimes. Sadly, in this universe, lawmakers are primarily concerned with satisfying the demands of their newest and most generous campaign contributors. Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) told Politico, “These are folks who think that when they’ve bought themselves a Congress, then they expect it to behave the way they say.”3 After a year of this Congress, it would be hard to argue they’re wrong.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    But Coinbase’s flex may have caused something of a power struggle with the White House. “This is President Trump’s bill at the end of the day, not Brian Armstrong’s,” said a source close to the Trump administration.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    Former NYC Mayor Eric Adams is fending off rug pull allegations after a wallet connected to his “NYC Token” project extracted almost $1 million in liquidity less than an hour after launch, crashing the token price.

    With all those red flags flapping in the wind, it’s perhaps no surprise that the token launch quickly turned into disaster [W3IGG]. Almost immediately after the token was launched, the project’s liquidity providerd withdrew more than $2.4 million in USDC from the one-sided liquidity pool,e causing the token price to plummet by about 85%. Though the project team later claimed they had been “rebalanc[ing]” liquidity, they only returned $1.5 million to the liquidity pool, with more than $900,000 of it left sitting in the LP wallet. That same wallet then began making automated purchases of $NYC every minute, which the team claimed is part of a TWAP (time-weighted average price) buying strategy. This is a strange explanation that doesn’t address why the third-party liquidity was withdrawn, why it was only partially returned, or why the remaining USDC is now being used in a way that seems intended to create the appearance of sustained demand without any new money actually coming in.
    Since then, Adams has been fighting off allegations that he “rug pulled” the token. It seems too early to tell on that front, as the unaccounted funds are still sitting in the crypto wallet — perhaps to be restored to the liquidity pool, or perhaps to be withdrawn once whoever controls the wallet thinks attention has moved elsewhere. Some have speculated that this was all a way for Adams to surreptitiously accept belated bribes, I guess by having a would-be briber purchase a large amount of the token, and then extracting the funds as we saw. This is certainly possible, I suppose — there are some wallets that spent tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the token. But with Adams out of office and no longer needing to file disclosures, I don’t see why he’d go about it this way rather than just quietly creating a wallet and having people transfer crypto to him directly. Neither Adams nor the NYC Token team responded to questions about the removal of liquidity, the automated buying strategy, or details about the token, its team, or its plans to follow through on its promises. However, shortly after I sent the questions, the automated token buys stopped.
    Meanwhile, Edward Cullen — whose Innovate NY PAC spent nearly $100,000 on AI-generated flyers and other materials to back Andrew Cuomo last October after his last-minute crypto industry appeal — is back. Cullen claims that he pitched the NYC Token idea to Adams last year, and that Adams stole it from him, then “butchered” it for “short-term gain”. Cullen is now threatening to sue, although I’m not sure on what grounds.40

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    Trump has claimed “the leaker” has been jailed, seemingly referring to a group of wallets that made large profits from Polymarket bets with apparent advance knowledge of US military action against Venezuela. One such wallet profited around $410,000.

    Table of closed Polymarket bets Maduro out by January 31, 2026? 436,759.6 Yes at 7¢ Total bet $32,537.28 Amount won $436,759.61 $404,222.33 (1,242.34%) Trump invokes War Powers against Venezuela by January 31? 5,371.7 Yes at 5¢ Total bet $249.99 Amount won $2,714.64 $2,464.65 (985.91%) Market icon Will the U.S. invade Venezuela by January 31, 2026? 17,857.9 Yes at 6¢ Total bet $999.99 Amount won $3,143.26 $2,143.27 (214.33%) US forces in Venezuela by January 31, 2026? 1,197.8 Yes at 12¢ Total bet $146.00 Amount won $1,197.77 $1,051.78 (720.4%)
    Days later, Representative Ritchie Torres (D-NY) introduced a bill seeking to prohibit elected officials and other politicians and staff from participating in prediction markets connected to “government policy, government action, or political outcomes” when they possess or could obtain inside information.30 Then, on January 14, Trump said in a press conference that “The leaker [on Venezuela] has been found and is in jail right now” and would likely face a long sentence. He also noted that “there could be some others”.31 The identity of the leaker, how they gained access to sensitive information, and whether they were also the person who placed the bet has not been disclosed, nor has the charge on which they’ve been jailed.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The Trump family’s World Liberty Financial crypto project has applied for a national trust bank charter. If approved, the Comptroller of the Currency — who serves at the pleasure of the President — will be expected to enforce the law against Trump’s own company and its competitors.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The Senate has confirmed the CFTC’s new Chairman, Michael Selig. He has very minimal regulatory experience, and is now the only Commissioner on what is supposed to be a five-person bipartisan Commission.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • molly0xfff OP ,
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar

    The SEC is in a similar situation, having just lost its last Democratic and crypto-cautious Commissioner, Caroline Crenshaw. In her last speech as a Commissioner she warned of “dire repercussions” from the SEC’s deregulatory pivot, drawing comparisons to the period prior to the Great Depression.

    ALT
  • Reply
  • Loading...
  • @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    how magnanimous of him

    “We’ve got a chance to do a new draft and hopefully get back into a markup in a few weeks,” Armstrong said.

    ALT
    @h4ckernews@mastodon.social avatar h4ckernews Bot , to random
    @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io avatar molly0xfff , to random

    I've mentioned this before, but one thing I've been closely watching for is when crypto people begin to distance themselves from Trump.

    November 2024 vs. January 2026

    Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson said U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has put the American crypto industry in a worse position than it was under Trump's predecessor, former President Joe Biden.

    ALT