Cryptocurrency

Binance.US Lists Trump's USD1 Stablecoin Days After Presidential Pardon of Binance Founder

| Importance: 9/10

Binance.US added support for World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin on October 29, 2025, just six days after President Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ). The timing triggered immediate accusations of corruption from Senator Chris Murphy, who alleged the listing represented …

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Trump Pardons Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao After $2 Billion Stablecoin Deal

| Importance: 10/10

President Trump issued a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the founder of Binance cryptocurrency exchange, who had pleaded guilty to enabling money laundering and served four months in federal prison. The pardon came days after Binance.US added support for Trump family’s USD1 stablecoin and …

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Trump Family's USD1 Stablecoin Fails to Publish Attestation Reports, Raising Transparency Concerns

| Importance: 8/10

NYDIG, a prominent Bitcoin financial services firm, publicly flagged World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin for failing to publish required monthly attestation reports, with the most recent report dating from July 2025—over two months behind schedule. Greg Cipolaro, NYDIG’s Global …

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NYT Reveals UAE $2B Crypto Investment Tied to AI Chip Deal Approval

| Importance: 10/10

The New York Times revealed that after UAE entity MGX (controlled by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed) invested $2 billion in World Liberty Financial—a cryptocurrency venture co-founded by Trump and special envoy Steve Witkoff—the White House approved the UAE’s acquisition of hundreds of thousands of …

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Trump Media Announces $1 Billion Crypto.com Partnership While Trump Holds Presidential Office

| Importance: 10/10

Trump Media and Technology Group, owner of Truth Social, announced a $1 billion partnership with Crypto.com and Yorkville Advisors to create Trump Media Group CRO Strategy Inc., which will hold cryptocurrency assets and merge with Yorkville Acquisition Corp under the ticker ‘MCGA’ (Make …

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Trump Crypto Empire Raises Major Constitutional Conflict of Interest Concerns

| Importance: 9/10

Trump Media and Technology Group announced significant cryptocurrency partnerships that could generate hundreds of millions in foreign-backed revenue, potentially violating the Emoluments Clause. The venture involves state-backed Emirati investment firm MGX, crypto exchange Binance, and World …

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Treasury Sanctions Tornado Cash with Chainalysis Providing Analysis

| Importance: 9/10

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions Tornado Cash, adding the decentralized cryptocurrency mixer to the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List with multiple cryptocurrency addresses as identifiers. This landmark action marks the first time OFAC has …

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Chainalysis Raises $170 Million at $8.6 Billion Valuation in Series F

| Importance: 8/10

Chainalysis announces a $170 million Series F financing led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, bringing its valuation to $8.6 billion and cementing the company’s position as the largest enterprise SaaS company in the cryptocurrency industry. The funding round represents another …

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Tornado Cash Integrates Chainalysis Tool to Block OFAC-Sanctioned Addresses

| Importance: 7/10

Tornado Cash, the decentralized cryptocurrency mixer designed to enhance transaction privacy, integrates Chainalysis’s oracle contract to block OFAC-sanctioned addresses from accessing the dapp. This controversial move represents a significant compromise of the privacy tool’s core …

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Chainalysis Raises $100 Million at $4.2 Billion Valuation in Series E

| Importance: 8/10

Chainalysis announces a $100 million Series E financing led by Coatue, bringing its valuation to $4.2 billion and establishing the company as the dominant player in the cryptocurrency surveillance industry. The funding round comes just three months after a $100 million Series D round in March 2021 …

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IRS Launches Virtual Currency Compliance Campaign Using Chainalysis

| Importance: 7/10

The Internal Revenue Service announces a Virtual Currency Compliance Campaign to address tax noncompliance related to cryptocurrency use, heavily relying on Chainalysis blockchain surveillance software. The IRS Cyber Crimes Unit (CCU), a five-year-old division of IRS Criminal Investigation, deploys …

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TRM Labs Founded to Provide Blockchain Intelligence to Governments and Financial Institutions

| Importance: 7/10

Esteban Castano and Rahul Raina found TRM Labs in San Francisco, creating a blockchain intelligence platform designed to help government agencies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses detect and investigate crypto-related fraud and financial crime. The company enters a rapidly …

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Chainalysis Secures First Federal Contract with FBI for $9,000

| Importance: 7/10

Chainalysis secures its first federal government contract, a $9,000 data software deal with the FBI, marking the beginning of the U.S. government’s systematic use of blockchain surveillance technology. In 2015, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are Chainalysis’s only federal …

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Chainalysis Founded to Provide Blockchain Forensics to Governments and Banks

| Importance: 8/10

Michael Gronager, Jonathan Levin, and Jan Møller found Chainalysis in late 2014, creating the first startup dedicated to Bitcoin tracing for government agencies and financial institutions. The company emerges from Gronager’s work investigating the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange collapse, …

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Elliptic Founded as First Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Firm

| Importance: 7/10

Elliptic is founded in London by Adam Joyce, Tom Robinson, and James Smith, becoming the first company to develop cryptoasset anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance tools based on blockchain analytics. The company pioneers the application of blockchain forensics to track illicit …

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