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Former New York governor advised OKX over $505M federal probe: Report
Cryptocurrency exchange OKX reportedly hired former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to advise it over the federal probe that resulted in the firm pleading guilty to several violations and agreeing to pay $505 million in fines and penalties. Cuomo, a New York-registered attorney, advised OKX on legal issues stemming from the probe sometime after August 2021 when he resigned as New York overnor, Bloomberg reported on April 2, citing people familiar with the matter. “He spoke with company executives regularly and counseled them on how to respond to the criminal investigation,” Bloomberg said. The Seychelles-based firm pled guilty to operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business in violation of US Anti-Money Laundering laws on Feb. 24 and agreed to pay $84 million worth of penalties while forfeiting $421 million worth of fees earned from mostly institutional clients. The breaches occurred from 2018 to 2024 despite OKX having an official policy preventing US persons from transacting on its crypto exchange since 2017, the Department of Justice noted at the time. A spokesperson for Cuomo, Rich Azzopardi, told Bloomberg that Cuomo has been providing private legal services representing individuals and corporations on a variety of matters since resigning as New York governor. “He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency and routinely recommends former colleagues for positions,” Azzopardi added. OKX reportedly wasn’t willing to comment on its relationships with outside firms. Cuomo also influenced OKX to make executive appointments: Bloomberg Cuomo, who is now running for mayor of New York City, also advised OKX to appoint his friend US Attorney Linda Lacewell to OKX’s board of directors, Bloomberg said. Lacewell, a former superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, was added to the board in 2024 and was named OKX’s new chief legal officer on April 1, according to a recent company statement. Source: Linda Lacewell Related: New York bill aims to protect crypto investors from memecoin rug pulls After the investigation concluded, OKX said it would seek out a compliance consultant to remedy the issues stemming from the federal probe and bolster its regulatory compliance program. “Our vision is to make OKX the gold standard of global compliance at scale across different markets and their respective regulatory bodies,” OKX CEO Star Xu said in a Feb. 24 X post. Magazine: Financial nihilism in crypto is over — It’s time to dream big again

2025-04-03 02:56
EY updates privacy L2 as nixed Tornado Cash sanctions ease fears
Big Four accounting firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young, has changed its enterprise-focused Ethereum layer-2 blockchain Nightfall to a zero-knowledge rollup design as it says corporate clients are more comfortable with privacy solutions with easing US sanctions. EY said in an April 2 announcement that Nightfall’s new source code, “Nightfall_4,” simplifies the network’s architecture and offers near-instant transaction finality on Ethereum while making it more accessible to users than its previous optimistic rollup-based version. EY’s global blockchain leader, Paul Brody, told Cointelegraph that switching to a ZK-rollup model “means instant finality, but it also makes operations simpler since you don’t need a challenger node to secure the network,” which verifies the correctness of transactions. The move away from optimistic rollups means Nightfall users won’t need to challenge potentially incorrect transactions on Ethereum and wait out the challenging period, leading to faster transaction finality. No such feature is present with zero-knowledge rollups, meaning that a transaction becomes final as soon as it is added into a Nightfall block, EY said. It is the fourth major update to Nightfall since EY launched the business-focused Ethereum layer 2 in 2019. Nightfall enables the firm’s business partners to transfer tokens privately using Ethereum’s security while being cheaper than the base network. It also uses a technology that binds a verified identity to a public key through digital signatures to try to stem counterparty risk. Nixed Tornado Cash sanctions “helped people feel comfortable” Brody said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions on the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash “had a chilling effect on legitimate business user interest.” “Even though we long ago took steps to make Nightfall unattractive to bad actors, since it cannot be used anonymously, the removal of OFAC sanctions has really helped people feel comfortable that using a privacy technology will not be risky,” he added. Nightfall’s code is open source on GitHub but remains a permissioned blockchain for EY’s customer base, competing with the likes of the IBM-backed Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda and the Consensus-built Quorum. Brody said that EY’s blockchain team is working toward “a single environment that supports payments, logic, and composability.” Currently, the firm requires Nightfall and Starlight, a tool that can change smart contract code to enable zero-knowledge proofs “to enable complex multiparty business agreements under privacy,” he added. “We’ll spend some time supporting Nightfall_4 deployments initially,” Brody said. “Then we’ll move on to the development of Nightfall_5.” Magazine: What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum’s latest innovation

2025-04-03 02:00
Trump imposes 10% tariff on all countries, reciprocal levies on trading partners
United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing reciprocal tariffs on trading partners and a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from all countries. The reciprocal levies on will be approximately half of what trading partners charge for US imports, Trump said. For example, China currently has a tariff of 67% on US imports, so US reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods will be 34%. Trump also announced a standard 25% tariff on all automobile imports. Trump told the media that tariffs would return the country to economic prosperity seen in previous centuries: “From 1789 to 1913, we were a tariff-backed nation. The United States was proportionately the wealthiest it has ever been. So wealthy, in fact, that in the 1880s, they established a commission to decide what they were going to do with the vast sums of money they were collecting.” “Then, in 1913, for reasons unknown to mankind, they established the income tax so that citizens, rather than foreign countries, would start paying,” Trump said. Full breakdown of reciprocal tariffs by country. Source: Cointelegraph Trump presented the tariffs through the lens of economic protectionism and hinted at returning to the economic policies of the 19th century by using them to replace the income tax . Related: Bitcoin rally to $88.5K obliterates bears as spot volumes soar — Will a tariff war stop the party? Trump proposes eliminating federal income tax and replacing it with tariff revenue Trump proposed the idea of abolishing the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and funding the federal government exclusively through trade tariffs while still on the campaign trail in October 2024. According to accounting automation company Dancing Numbers, Trump's plan could save each American taxpayer $134,809-$325,561 in taxes throughout their lives. US President Donald Trump addresses the media about reciprocal trade tariffs at the April 2 press event. Source: Fox 4 Dallas The higher range of the tax savings estimate will only occur if other wage-based taxes are eliminated at the state and municipal levels. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who assumed office in February , also voiced support for replacing the IRS with the “External Revenue Service.” Lutnick said that the US government cannot balance a budget yet consistently demands more from its citizens every year. Tariffs will also protect American workers and strengthen the US economy, he said. Magazine: Elon Musk’s plan to run government on blockchain faces uphill battle

2025-04-03 01:34
US lawmakers press SEC for info about Trump family-backed crypto firm
Two Democratic lawmakers in the US Senate and House of Representatives have called on acting Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Mark Uyeda to preserve information regarding World Liberty Financial, the crypto firm backed by President Donald Trump’s family. In an April 2 letter, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Maxine Waters — ranking members of the Senate Banking Committee and House Financial Services Committee, respectively — asked Uyeda to provide information to Congress based on Trump’s ties to World Liberty Financial (WLFI). The two lawmakers suggested the SEC may be being influenced by the firm, and “this conflict of interest may be interfering with its mission to protect investors and maintain fair and orderly markets.” “The Trump family’s financial stake in World Liberty Financial represents an unprecedented conflict of interest with the potential to influence the Trump Administration’s oversight — or lack thereof — of the cryptocurrency industry, creating an obvious incentive for the Trump Administration to direct federal agencies, including the SEC, to take positions favorable to cryptocurrency interests that directly benefit the President's family,” said the letter. April 2 letter to acting SEC chair Mark Uyeda. Source: House Financial Services Committee The letter came roughly a week after WLFI announced it had launched a stablecoin , USD1, on the BNB Chain and Ethereum blockchain. However, since January, Trump has followed through with several crypto policies and projects with potential conflicts of interest, including plans to establish a national cryptocurrency stockpile and the launch of a TRUMP memecoin. Related: Crypto has a regulatory capture problem in Washington — Or does it? According to Warren and Waters, Americans deserved transparency about Trump’s crypto ventures and how they could potentially influence policy at the SEC, a financial regulatory agency largely intended to be independent of the administration. The two called on Uyeda to preserve records and communications related to WLFI from Trump and his family, as well as communications with the SEC. “The American people deserve to know whether their financial markets are being regulated impartially or whether regulatory decisions are being made to benefit the President's family financial interests,” wrote the Democratic lawmakers. The letter reiterated arguments Waters made in an April 2 House Financial Services Committee hearing. The California lawmaker said that without oversight and accountability, Trump could install WLFI’s stablecoin for government payments and profit directly from his position as president. Many other lawmakers and financial experts across the political spectrum have expressed concern over Trump’s potential conflicts of interest with the crypto industry. SEC leadership under Trump Since Trump appointed Uyeda as acting chair, the SEC has dropped investigations and enforcement actions into several crypto firms, including those with executives who contributed directly to the president’s 2024 campaign. Paul Atkins, Trump’s pick to chair the SEC after Uyeda, is expected to face a vote in the Senate Banking Committee on April 3. If Atkins’ nomination moves out of committee, the full chamber will decide whether to confirm him. Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

2025-04-03 01:15
Curve Finance clocks $35B trading volume in Q1 2025
Curve Finance, a decentralized lending protocol and exchange, notched record-breaking trading volumes of nearly $35 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a spokesperson for the protocol told Cointelegraph. Trading volumes increased more than 13% from the first quarter of 2024, largely due to a surge in transactions, from around 1.8 million to some 5.5 million in Q1 2025, Curve said. The strong Q1 volumes come amid overall declines in the cryptocurrency market, with the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies dropping by more than 20% in the year-to-date as of March 31, according to data from CoinGecko. Curve’s total value locked (TVL) over time. Source: DefiLlama Related: Curve Finance launches ‘Savings crvUSD’ yield-bearing stablecoin Changing DeFi Landscape Launched in 2020, Curve has taken numerous steps in the past year to keep pace with the changing decentralized finance (DeFi) landscape. In June 2024, Curve adopted crvUSD, its stablecoin, for fee distribution to tokenholders , replacing an older model that paid holders in shares of the 3crv liquidity pool. In November, Curve partnered with Elixir , a blockchain network, to help onboard BlackRock’s tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, to DeFi. By the end of 2025, Curve plans to consolidate its lending markets into a single user interface and provide borrowers with more time to close positions before they are liquidated, it told Cointelegraph. Curve founder Michael Egorov said in March that he expects many decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to evolve into bespoke platforms for stablecoins pegged to various currency denominations. "Exchanges between stablecoins of different denominations like the euro, US dollar, and others are not yet properly solved. How to provide liquidity without losing money, but while earning a lot of money, is kind of an open question that I think will be solved soon,” Egorov said. Despite the rise in transactions, the total value locked (TVL) on Curve’s platform is approximately $1.8 billion as of April 2, according to data from DefILlama, down from highs of roughly $2.5 billion at the start of the year. Curve’s native token, Curve DAO ( CRV ), has a market capitalization of approximately $640 million at this writing, marking a more than 40% decline in the year-to-date, according to data from Cointelegraph. Related: BTC miners adopted ‘treasury strategy,’ diversified business in 2024: Report

2025-04-03 00:54
Fidelity introduces retirement accounts with minimal-fee crypto investing
Fidelity, a financial services company with $5.9 trillion in assets under management, has introduced new retirement accounts that will allow Americans to invest in crypto nearly fee-free. The three accounts — a tax-deferred traditional IRA and two Roth IRAs (one is a rollover) — permit the buying and selling of Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ether ( ETH ), and Litecoin ( LTC ). While there are no fees to open or maintain the accounts, Fidelity charges a 1% spread on the execution price of crypto buy and sell transactions. The crypto IRAs are offered by Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Fidelity that has traditionally offered institutional investors the opportunity to buy and sell crypto. The broadening of its client base may be another signal of the changing crypto landscape in the United States, which has seen the adoption of a strategic Bitcoin reserve and multiple companies, including stablecoin issuer Circle , filing for an initial public offering. Fidelity states that, for security, it holds the majority of its crypto in cold storage, which consists of crypto wallets not connected to the internet . Related: Bitcoin ETFs for retirement planning: A beginner’s guide BTC and ETH exposure already offered for retirement accounts While the direct purchase of cryptocurrencies in an IRA has never been strictly prohibited, few IRA providers have allowed such purchases, according to Investopedia. Therefore, Fidelity’s new IRAs may signal a change in the environment. Still, for enthusiasts of BTC and ETH, there have been other options since 2024, such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) of those corresponding coins. Since the debut of those ETFs, investors in the US have been able to gain exposure to crypto markets from their retirement accounts — depending on the brokerage. There has also been the rise of Bitcoin IRAs , which are self-directed retirement accounts that offer tax advantages. Some crypto companies offer digital-asset-specific IRAs like BitIRA, where individuals can add altcoins such as LTC to their retirement portfolios. The move to allow more Americans to invest crypto into retirement accounts may be gaining momentum. On April 1, Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville announced the reintroduction of a bill to allow Americans to add cryptocurrency to their 401(k)s . The process would involve scaling back regulations issued by the Department of Labor. Magazine: X Hall of Flame: Bitcoin will ‘start ripping’ as Trump’s polls improve — Felix Hartmann

2025-04-03 00:44
Ethereum price may have bottomed, but pro traders show little interest in buying ETH
Ether ( ETH ) price has risen 6.4% from its March 30 $1,768 low but the altcoin has struggled to regain the $2,000 level. Some traders believe that the downturn is partially connected to the deflating memecoin market, which, while not exclusive to the Ethereum network, significantly reduced activity across the decentralized applications (DApps) ecosystem and broader crypto space. Ether is currently 44% down year-to-date, and derivatives metrics indicate that traders are far from bullish and show little confidence in a strong recovery in the near term. Proof of this can be found in the premium on Ether futures relative to spot markets. While the figure rose to 4% on April 2, up from 2% on March 31, it is still below the neutral 5% threshold. This data indicates that Ether investors remain far from turning bullish, despite the strengthening support at the $1,800 price level. Ether 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: Laevitas.ch To assess whether whales and market makers lack confidence in Ether’s performance, one should analyze the ETH options market. Under neutral conditions, the 25% delta skew should be balanced between call (buy) and put (sell) options, typically ranging from -6% to 6%. Deribit ETH 30-day options 25% delta skew (put-call). Source: Laevitas.ch The Ether delta skew metric has retreated from the 9% level seen on March 31, yet the current 7% reading suggests that risk-aversion sentiment remains strong. The rising cost of hedging indicates that whales fear further downside for ETH, suggesting it may take longer for traders to regain confidence. Ethereum adoption remains strong despite DApps revenue drop It’s easy to attribute much of Ether’s price decline to the 49% drop in Ethereum DApps revenue between January and March. However, while the reduced network activity limits the influx of new users and dampens overall demand for ETH, its advantages over traditional financial markets and its dominance in decentralized finance (DeFi) remain unchanged. The stablecoin holdings on Ethereum are nearing an all-time high of $124.5 billion, and Ethereum is still the undisputed leader, with $49 billion in total value locked (TVL). This data suggests significant potential for ETH adoption, particularly as new use cases emerge, such as structured products and more complex DeFi applications leveraging synthetic assets. Despite the early struggles of metaverse applications, declining interest in memecoins , and the sharp downturn in non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace activity, the Ethereum network continues to expand. ETH funding rate neutral as ETFs dampen retail trading enthusiasm Instead of focusing solely on how professional traders are positioned, it is also valuable to assess retail investors’ sentiment. Perpetual futures (inverse swaps) typically follow spot prices closely, as leverage imbalances are corrected through a fee known as the funding rate, which is charged every eight hours. In neutral markets, this rate fluctuates between 0.1% and 0.3% over a seven-day period. Ether 8-hour perpetual futures funding rate. Source: Laevitas.ch The ETH perpetual funding rate has been neutral since March 31, indicating that retail traders are not attempting to catch a falling knife. A key factor behind this lack of enthusiasm is the spot Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which saw $37 million in net outflows over the past two weeks. While derivatives data is often backward-looking and does not necessarily signal further ETH price declines, sentiment could shift quickly given the positive momentum from the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial investment in ETH and Eric Trump’s vocal support for Ether . For the time being, professional traders and retail investors remain cautious about ETH’s price outlook. This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

2025-04-03 00:15
Bitcoin rally to $88.5K obliterates bears as spot volumes soar — Will a tariff war stop the party?
Bitcoin price caught an unexpected bid by rallying to a session high at $88,500, but will the price gains be capped at a multimonth overhead resistance that is aligned with the 50-day moving average? Key points: Bitcoin extended its April. 1 gains as news that the Trump administration had not finalized its “ Liberation Day ” tariffs emerged. Israel, Mexico and India have already rolled back their tariffs on US imports or suggested that they will not do “tit for tat” tariffs in response to the expected April 2 US tariffs. Bitcoin ( BTC ) trades slightly below a 3-month descending trendline resistance where the price has consistentlybeen rejected during past rallies. Total market liquidations over the past 12-hour trading period have reached $145 million, with $69.4 million of the figure being Bitcoin shorts. Data from Kingfisher, CoinGlass and Velo show short liquidations playing a role in today’s push above $88,500. Crypto market liquidations in the past 12-hours. Source. CoinGlass For the past few months, Bitcoin price has struggled to hold the gains accrued from rallies driven by leverage. Looking beyond futures markets, there are some positives that suggest that the market structure is slowly transitioning from bearish to bullish. As shown in the chart below, recent rallies were accompanied by a strong bid in the spot market and the return of the Coinbase Pro premium, leading some analysts to speculate buying from Strategy and other companies focused on building Bitcoin reserves. Coinbase premium index. Source: CryptoQuant Over the last two weeks, GameStop, MARA, Metaplanet and Strategy all announced plans to buy more Bitcoin , with GameStop being on the verge of purchasing and Strategy actively adding to its BTC position. GameStop secures $1.5B for possible BTC purchase. Source: Arkham In the short-term, sustained spot buy volume at Binance and Coinbase Pro, and the crypto and equities markets’ response to President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs are likely to be the most impactful factors that will influence the current bullish momentum seen in Bitcoin price. Related: Bitcoin price on verge of breaking 10-week downtrend — Is $90K BTC next? This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

2025-04-02 23:22
West Virginia's BTC reserve bill is 'freedom' from a CBDC — State Senator
West Virginia’s Bitcoin ( BTC ) strategic reserve bill would give the state more sovereignty from the federal government and freedom from a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC), State Senator Chris Rose told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. “You hear these rumors that there are people at the federal government that will want to have a central bank digital currency,” Rose said. “And people don’t want that. People want decentralized currency. They want freedom.” The bill, introduced in February , seeks to allow the state treasury to invest up to 10% of public funds in precious metals like gold and silver, stablecoins, or any digital asset that has had a $750 million market capitalization or higher over the last 12 months. Currently, the only digital asset with such a market cap is Bitcoin. West Virginia State Senator Chris Rose. Source: Cointelegraph Rose, the bill's sponsor, said that the reason they decided on the market cap requirement was to allow the state to have exposure to cryptocurrency, but not to get trapped “in any things like memecoins.” Adopting Bitcoin on the state level would “give us a little more state sovereignty,” Rose added. “And I think that’s one reason why you see a lot of people who normally buy [Bitcoin] for themselves want to see their state government do the same.” He added that a 10% allocation of state funds would be a “good way to introduce [Bitcoin] to the state” while avoiding any fear from people who don’t understand digital assets. “It’s a good way to cap that where they feel comfortable, but also give us at least a decent exposure as well.” Bitcoin: “a very powerful” investment and freedom tool Rose said that one of the roadblocks to getting the bill passed is fear, in particular among those who don't understand cryptocurrency. “Just like any other state, we have people who understand it. We also have people that don’t understand it, and people are always afraid of what they don’t know.” He added that “once they understand it, they realize it’s a very powerful investment tool and freedom tool for every one of us to adopt.” Excerpt of West Virginia Bitcoin reserve bill. Source: West Virginia Legislature West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey, who has envisioned a future state economy powered by crypto and other tech, won’t be a roadblock, Rose said. And the state treasurer, whom Rose consulted before introducing the bill, won’t either. However, according to WVNews, a West Virginia publication, some lawmakers and financial experts remain skeptical. Investing state funds into Bitcoin may be risky due to the asset’s volatility and price swings, which can cause financial instability and make Bitcoin a controversial choice for state investments. Although Bitcoin strategic reserve bills have been popping up in state legislatures around the United States, some bills have failed to pass or have scrapped key provisions , including some of those in traditionally conservative states . Currently, 47 strategic Bitcoin reserve bills have been introduced in 26 states according to Bitcoin Laws. While, in most of the states, the bills have only been introduced or referred to committees, some have made headway in three: Arizona , Oklahoma , and Texas . Related: Texas Senate passes Bitcoin strategic reserve bill Rose clarified that the 10% of state funds allocated to precious metals, stablecoins, or Bitcoin would be sourced from two key areas. “It would be the assets under the pensions fund and under the severance tax fund,” Rose said. “They would be able to divest some of those ETF funds into these assets. We wanted to keep it separate from the petty cash fund, which is day-to-day, just paying the bills of the state. We wanted to keep it to our longer-term assets,” he added. Magazine: X Hall of Flame, Benjamin Cowen: Bitcoin dominance will fall in 2025

2025-04-02 23:15

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