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Binance suspends euro stablecoin after 200% price surge

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“We will assist the AEUR project team to provide reasonable compensation to affected users” within 72 hours, the exchange said.

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Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

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US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month.

Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge.

“After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” Clayton wrote.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s April memo said the Justice Department would end the so-called “regulation by prosecution” of crypto, and added that the agency wouldn’t prosecute crypto mixers like Tornado Cash “for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.”

A highlighted excerpt of Blanche’s memo stating that the Department of Justice was rolling back its crypto enforcement. Source: US Department of Justice

Clayton added that the indictment against Storm will cut the accusation that he failed to comply with money transmitting business registration requirements.

Prosecutors were pursuing that charge as part of their allegation that Storm conspired to run Tornado Cash as an unlicensed money transmitter.

The government will still push ahead with the charge under the accusation that Storm transmitted funds while knowing they were derived from a criminal offence or were intended to support unlawful activity. 

The Justice Department alleged that Tornado Cash helped launder over $1 billion worth of crypto, including for the sanctioned North Korean state-backed hacking collective the Lazarus Group.

Clayton said the Justice Department will also still pursue the other two charges in its indictment, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions.

Related: NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors allege 

The money laundering and sanctions violations conspiracy charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the unlicensed money transmitter conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.

Storm has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for July 14. He was charged alongside fellow founder Roman Semenov, who is at large and believed to be in his native Russia.

Blanche memo cited in bids to toss

Other crypto executives facing charges have pointed to Blanche’s memo in a bid to have their cases dismissed.

Crypto mixer Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill had pointed to the memo to try to dismiss their charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering conspiracy.

Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has also cited the memo in an attempt to have the charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy against him dismissed.

Legal Panel: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set 

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Wisconsin Investment Board sold off its Bitcoin ETF stash

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The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which oversees the state’s retirement funds, unloaded its shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) during the first quarter, filings show.

The Wisconsin Investment Board reported no spot Bitcoin ETF positions in its 13F filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15, liquidating all 6,060,351 IBIT shares it reported holding from the previous quarter. 

The more than 6 million IBIT shares are worth around $355.6 million at current prices.

SWIB was one of the first state investment funds to provide Bitcoin exposure to US retirees when it bought $164 million worth of Bitcoin ETFs in Q1 2024 — the same quarter the Bitcoin products launched.

Source: Julian Fahrer

The mass sell-off comes only a quarter after SWIB reported additional purchases of IBIT shares in Q4, while reallocating all 1 million shares held in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to IBIT.

SWIB reported managing more than $166 billion worth of assets at the end of 2024, meaning the Bitcoin ETFs represented around 0.2% of SWIB’s entire portfolio before it sold them off.

Related: Jim Chanos takes opposing bets on Bitcoin and Strategy

Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala snapped up another 491,439 shares of IBIT in Q1, according to its latest 13F filing.

Its purchases brought Mubadala’s total IBIT shares to 8,726,972 as of March 31, worth around $512 million at current prices.

IBIT has been on a tear

IBIT’s net inflows surpassed the $45 billion mark on May 14 after recording a net inflow of $232.9 million, Farside Investors data shows.  

IBIT’s impressive 20-day streak of net inflows came to an end the day before — May 13 — when it registered a “0” inflow on the day. The BlackRock-issued Bitcoin product still hasn’t seen an outflow since April 9 — more than five weeks ago.

The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) and the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARK) trail IBIT in all-time net inflows at $11.6 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively.

Flow data of the 11 US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs since April 28. Source: Farside Investors

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

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"The world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now" — Eric Trump

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There is an ongoing race across the world for Bitcoin accumulation, according to Eric Trump, the second-eldest son of US President Donald Trump. Speaking at a crypto conference in Toronto on May 15, Trump said that from families to government funds, “everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now.”

The remarks came during a panel at Consensus 2025. Sharing the stage with Asher Genoot, the CEO of Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Hut 8, Trump said Bitcoin adoption has been incredible.

“I’m traveling. I’m on a plane. Everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now. Everybody. I hear it from sovereign wealth funds. I hear it from the wealthiest families. I hear from the biggest companies.”Asher Genoot and Eric Trump at Consensus 2025. Source: Cointelegraph

Trump described what he sees as “two races in Bitcoin”: the accumulation race — currently led by Michael Saylor, he says — and the mining race, which marks his own involvement in the crypto space.

President Trump’s third child is co-founder of American Bitcoin, a Hut8 subsidiary. On May 12, the companies announced American Bitcoin would merge with Gryphon Digital Mining in a stock-for-stock transaction that will result with a public listing on the Nasdaq.

Related: Bitcoin bulls aim for new all-time highs by next week as capital inflows soar

Trump crypto ventures cause Democrats consternation

The size of Trump’s family crypto ventures has grown considerably over several years from non-fungible token collections and mining to memecoins and a stablecoin. Critics say the ventures pose conflicts of interest and open the door to potential corruption.

At various points, Democrats have called for investigations into Trump’s crypto-related activities, proposed legislation aimed at limiting potential financial gains by the Trump family from memecoins, and walked out of a joint hearing on digital assets, citing concerns over the lack of discussion around the president’s involvement in the crypto space.

Senate Democrats withdrew their support for a bipartisan stablecoin bill amid ongoing scrutiny of the president’s crypto ventures, though a second voting session could come as soon as May 26.

Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading question

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