Donald Trump and the Republican Party at large had a strong 2024 election, winning the presidency, Senate and House. This almost certainly guarantees crypto legislation will advance and become law sometime in the next two years. It also heralds a potentially softer approach from regulators toward the sector.
A week after the election, crypto sentiment remains strong. Polymarket, bitcoin and a possibly more efficient and crypto-positive government are all tailwinds to look forward to.
In founding editor Bradley Keoun's last issue of The Protocol, CoinDesk's weekly newsletter devoted to blockchain technology, we're covering Trump's DOGE whistle and the slew of announcements from the big Ethereum conference Devcon in Bangkok.
It is Election Day in the U.S. At some point in the coming hours, days and weeks, we'll know which major party wins control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and the White House. Presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump might get most of the headlines, but which political party controls Congress probably means a lot in terms of how cryptocurrencies will be treated in the nation, especially in the short term.
In this week's issue of The Protocol, our newsletter on blockchain tech, we're covering the Optimism's $42.5M token pledge to Kraken, crypto VC funding, grants for Bitcoin open-source developers, and Polymarket's (negligible) impact on Polygon's bottom line.
What role do privacy tools play in crypto, and how does this discussion develop? Those were some of the questions at a panel I moderated last week at the DC Privacy Summit.
Last week, CoinDesk's Sam Kessler reported that developers and IT workers employed by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea – i.e. North Korea – had managed to get themselves hired by a number of crypto projects, giving them two different ways of raising funds for the national regime.
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison will learn her fate in a few hours. She may spend the next several months or years behind bars, but her attorneys, the Department of Justice and the Probation Office all seem to think she should remain a free woman after the amount of cooperation she provided.
Forget the Federal Reserve. The Bitcoin and crypto project news flow is ample (and fascinating) enough to keep us busy. We've got the rundown plus $80M of fundraisings. In CoinDesk's weekly newsletter on blockchain tech.
The former president of the United States is launching a crypto yield product, even as he appeals to the crypto industry in his current bid for office. Donald Trump will be the "chief crypto advocate" for World Liberty Financial, a venture that has offered scant hints so far about what it will actually do.
Earlier this month, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told the audience at a "Crypto4Harris" virtual event that he hoped to shepherd crypto legislation through Congress and have President Joe Biden sign the bill into law by the end of 2024. It was a bold promise, one that on first blush seems like a hard pledge to fulfill.
In 2020, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network proposed imposing know-your-customer requirements on unhosted wallets, drawing immense backlash from the crypto industry. This week, the Treasury Department formally withdrew the proposal.
Last week, a federal judge convened a hearing for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Binance after publishing her ruling on Binance's motion to dismiss the SEC lawsuit.
A federal judge overseeing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Binance ruled that most of the case can proceed, but dismissed charges tied to the sale of BUSD and secondary sales of BNB.
Last October, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) – the U.S. Treasury Department's money laundering watchdog – announced a proposal to label crypto mixers as a "primary money laundering" concern, a move that alarmed a broad swath of the crypto industry. Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson addressed this move and more at CoinDesk's Consensus 2024 last month in Austin, Texas on stage. The following transcript has been lightly edited (and the bulk of my questions have been slimmed down to their gist).
The only thing worse than meme coins is complaining about the financialization of memes.
The creator of the Ordinals and Runes protocols discussed his motivations on stage at Consensus 2024.
In an interview at Consensus 2024, the Galaxy Digital CEO was asked about a plethora of regulatory and legislative issues affecting crypto.
Conference attendees give their say on market sentiment.
While many in the industry cheered the passing of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act yesterday, many other raised criticisms and concerns.
Laszlo Hanyecz is famous for spending 10,000 bitcoin on two pizzas. But his involvement with Bitcoin development goes much deeper than food purchases.
This week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might approve spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the House of Representatives may vote in favor of a crypto market structure bill, the company behind a decentralized exchange is arguing with the SEC, and that's all just in the U.S. All of these topics will come up at Consensus 2024 next week.
The U.S. is holding its presidential election this fall. More than half a dozen other countries and bodies are likewise holding – or have held – elections this year. Some candidates and lawmakers have already addressed crypto, whether appealing to the industry or just commenting on the technology. The extent to which there is such a thing as a "crypto voter" remains unclear, but it is undeniable that there is a wave of attention directed at this industry.
It’d be foolish for people to vote against their own interests.
Last month, Ethereum incubator ConsenSys sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an injunction asking a federal court to block the regulator from investigating its MetaMask offering or from declaring Ether (ETH) a security. It's the latest company to follow a growing trend of preemptive litigation against the SEC.
Robinhood apparently made strenuous efforts to comply with the agency, even applying to become a special purpose crypto broker-dealer. The SEC is likely to sue for alleged securities violations in any case.
His four-month sentence was vindication for the Binance founder’s legal strategy.
There was a lot of news last week, but maybe the biggest news came Wednesday when the U.S. Department of Justice arrested two co-founders of Samourai Wallet, a bitcoin wallet that offered mixing services. The arrest ramps up the federal government's efforts to tamp down on what it sees as money laundering enabled by privacy tools, and sets up a continuation of that broader conversation on where the right to transact in privacy fits within national security interests.