Cryptocurrency

House Judiciary Democrats Release Report Exposing Trump Family's $800 Million Cryptocurrency Empire Built on Foreign Influence and Self-Dealing

| Importance: 10/10

Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, released a comprehensive staff report revealing that President Donald Trump and his family earned more than $800 million from cryptocurrency ventures in the first half of 2025 alone, with total crypto holdings valued at up to $11.6 …

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60 Minutes Investigation: Former DOJ Officials Call Trump's Binance Pardon 'Unprecedented Corruption'

| Importance: 9/10

On November 16, 2025, CBS News’ 60 Minutes aired a major investigative report examining President Trump’s October 23, 2025 pardon of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, revealing extensive financial ties between Zhao’s cryptocurrency empire and the Trump family’s crypto venture. …

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Trump Admits on 60 Minutes He Doesn't Know Changpeng Zhao, the Binance Founder He Pardoned

| Importance: 9/10

On November 3, 2025, President Trump admitted during a CBS “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell that he does not know who Changpeng Zhao is—the Binance cryptocurrency founder he pardoned just 11 days earlier on October 23, 2025. When asked why he pardoned Zhao, Trump stated: …

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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 …

Donald Trump Steve Witkoff David Sacks Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan MGX +2 more corruption pay-to-play institutional-capture conflicts-of-interest cryptocurrency +2 more
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Sam Bankman-Fried Convicted on All Counts in 'One of the Biggest Financial Frauds in American History'

| Importance: 10/10

A federal jury convicts Sam Bankman-Fried on all seven criminal counts including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering in what federal prosecutors describe as ‘one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.’ The conviction follows a …

Sam Bankman-Fried FTX Alameda Research U.S. Department of Justice Caroline Ellison +1 more corruption fraud regulatory-capture tech cryptocurrency +3 more
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FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested, Charged with Campaign Finance Violations and $8 Billion Fraud

| Importance: 10/10

Sam Bankman-Fried is arrested in the Bahamas at the request of U.S. prosecutors and charged with eight criminal counts including wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance law violations. The indictment alleges Bankman-Fried orchestrated a scheme to …

Sam Bankman-Fried FTX U.S. Department of Justice Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) CFTC +1 more corruption fraud regulatory-capture tech cryptocurrency +3 more
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FTX Cryptocurrency Exchange Collapses in $32 Billion Fraud, Exposing Crypto Regulation Failure

| Importance: 10/10

FTX cryptocurrency exchange, Alameda Research, and over 100 affiliated entities file for bankruptcy following the exposure of systematic fraud by founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The collapse was triggered on November 2 when CoinDesk revealed that Alameda Research—FTX’s affiliated trading firm owned …

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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 …

Tornado Cash Chainalysis OFAC surveillance cryptocurrency sanctions privacy ofac
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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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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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