The Guardian - Cryptocurrency News Sites

Contest for $TRUMP meme coin has prompted accusations of president boosting family business and foreign influenceOn Monday, the top 220 buyers of a Donald Trump-sponsored cryptocurrency won access to an exclusive dinner with the president as a reward for pouring money into the coin. It was the culmination of Trump’s weekslong promotion of the contest, which has drawn allegations that he is using his position to enrich his family business while opening himself up to foreign influence.The cryptocurrency, called $TRUMP, was created in mid-January and boasts a market capitalization of over $2bn after months of investors buying into the heavily promoted coin. A Trump family-linked company and another firm own a majority of the coins, according to Reuters. Continue reading...

Four senators, including Cory Booker, say they will press for vote against president’s plan to take $400m gift from QatarTop Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in the Trump’s personal presidential library.Four Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee said on Monday that they would press for a vote later this week. They said that elected officials, including the president, were not allowed to accept large gifts from foreign governments unless authorized to do so by Congress. Continue reading...

Founder and former CEO of bankruptcy lender pleaded guilty in December to securities and commodities fraudAlex Mashinsky, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network, was sentenced on Thursday to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty in December to securities fraud and commodities fraud.Mashinsky’s sentence was imposed by US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan, and is among the longest in a criminal case arising from the 2022 meltdown in cryptocurrency markets. Continue reading...

Dangerous bills could pave the way for Trump’s own cryptocurrency to be used in government paymentsWhen Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) gained access to treasury payment systems in February, Democratic party leadership pledged to protect government payments from Donald Trump’s influence. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries held a press conference announcing the Stop the Steal act that would prevent the takeover of critical government payment infrastructure. On that very same day, high-profile Democrats joined with Republicans to introduce legislation allowing for payments to be made in cryptocurrencies called stablecoins. The bill paves the way for the US president to require that all payments to and from the government are made with cryptocurrencies, which could include the one he has a business interest in.After making millions off a “memecoin”, the crypto-opportunist-in-chief recently entered the burgeoning crypto-payments market by launching a stablecoin. For the uninitiated, stablecoins are crypto products that allege to hold the value of a currency like the US dollar and are intended to be used as digital payments. In fact, stablecoins constantly fail to hold their value, aren’t subject to federal consumer protections, and aren’t backed by the full faith and credit of the government. If a consumer’s stablecoins are hacked, fraudulently or accidentally spent, or lost due to a misplaced password, stablecoin companies will not reverse or reimburse those payments like a credit card company would. If a stablecoin company fails, consumers are not protected by anything like federal deposit insurance. Stablecoins have also become the preferred cryptocurrency for illicit finance. Continue reading...

Victims have had fingers chopped off by attackers in crimewave targeting entrepreneurs and their familiesFrench police are investigating a series of kidnappings of investors linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his crypto-millionaire son pay a ransom.In the latest of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in France and western Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days. Continue reading...

Cryptocurrency mining facilities can blanket towns with ‘constant’ noise. They’re likely to get louder under TrumpFirst came the dogs’ balding – leathery pink patches on otherwise glossy fur coats.The veterinarian told Shenice Copenhaver it was genetic. But it wasn’t long before one of the hairless puppies began stealing blankets to burrow beneath furniture and hide for long stretches. Continue reading...

Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as the FTSE nets its longest-ever winning run, Amazon’s Bezos to sell stock worth up to $4.75bn; US employment figures higher than expectedEurozone unemployment was steady 6.2% in March – unchanged relative to a revised February reading.The youth unemployment rate was 14.2%, down from 14.3% in the previous month. Continue reading...

Soaring cryptocurrency values after Trump election has put pressure on financial regulator to take tougher lineThe UK financial regulator is preparing to ban retail investors from using borrowed funds such as credit card balances to invest in cryptocurrency as it seeks to overhaul supervision of the fast-growing digital assets market. The soaring values of virtual currencies such as bitcoin after Donald Trump’s election have put pressure on the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to take a tougher line while it also lays the groundwork for the industry to flourish in the UK.According to a recent YouGov survey, the proportion of people in the UK using borrowed funds to make crypto purchases more than doubled from 6% in 2022 to 14% last year. Continue reading...

World Liberty Financial’s USD1 will be used to close MGX’s investment in world’s biggest crypto exchangeA stablecoin launched by Donald Trump’s World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture is being used by an Abu Dhabi investment firm for its $2bn investment in crypto exchange Binance, one of World Liberty’s co-founders said on Thursday.World Liberty, which aims to allow people to access financial services without intermediaries like banks, said in March it would launch USD1, a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by US treasuries, dollars and other cash equivalents. Continue reading...