Crypto World
Fed Chair Nominee Grilled on Independence, Impact on Crypto Policy
The nomination of Kevin Warsh to head the U.S. Federal Reserve intensified a long-running debate over central-bank independence as lawmakers grilled him about his financial disclosures and potential conflicts of interest. With Jerome Powell’s term as chair nearing its end, the confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee became a focal point for questions about political influence, transparency, and how a future Fed chief would navigate a charged policy environment.
Warsh, a former Federal Reserve governor, faced pointed scrutiny from Democrats who argued that his financial holdings and ties could color monetary policy and risk management. The proceedings highlighted the broader challenge of balancing independence with accountability in a political era where presidential influence over the Fed remains a live concern for lawmakers and market participants alike.
Key takeaways
- Democrats pressed Warsh on his financial disclosures and potential conflicts of interest, raising concerns about the Fed’s insulation from political pressure.
- Warsh pledged to divest from personal holdings, including crypto and AI investments, before taking the oath if confirmed, signaling an attempt to address perceived conflicts.
- Crypto was explicitly discussed: Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis asked for clarity on digital assets, and Warsh described crypto as part of the U.S. financial services landscape.
- Republican and Democratic lines of questioning underscored disagreement over the Fed’s future policy stance, including the prospect of rate cuts urged by the president, though Warsh denied committing to any specific rate path.
Independence under scrutiny: the political dynamic of a Warsh nomination
As Powell’s term approaches its expiry next month, the Senate Banking Committee is tasked with evaluating whether Warsh can lead the U.S. central bank with sufficient autonomy. The exchange revealed a fundamental tension at the heart of the nomination: how to preserve the Fed’s dual mandate—maximum employment and stable prices—while acknowledging the political realities of the executive branch’s influence over presidential policy priorities.
Committee Chair Tim Scott acknowledged the need for a balance between independence and collaboration among the administration, Congress, and the Fed. In a CNBC interview cited by lawmakers, Scott stressed that independence means the Fed must perform its duties without being swayed by political pressures, particularly regarding the institution’s mandate. The debate thus shifted from personal biography to institutional trust: could Warsh be trusted to chart a prudent course even if the White House’s policy preferences diverge from market expectations?
Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, the committee’s ranking member, did not mince words. She labeled Warsh a potential “sock puppet” for the president’s policies, arguing that confirmation could pave the way for controversial arrangements or preferential treatment in the financial system. Warren warned that such a scenario might include “special accounts” or targeted supports that would undermine the Fed’s credibility. The tenor of her questions underscored a broader concern among lawmakers: that central-bank independence must be safeguarded to avoid entanglements with political favoritism or industry bailouts.
Warsh acknowledged the gravity of the independence issue but avoided direct answers about hypothetical policy outcomes tied to political pressure. When pressed about whether Trump’s influence could shape rate decisions, Warsh told Republican Senator John Kennedy that the president had never asked him to commit to a specific interest rate and that he would not have agreed to do so if asked—though he also noted that the question of influence remains more about guarding against perceived bias than about any single exchange. The exchange reflected the delicate calibration required of a Fed chair who may operate in a politically charged environment while maintaining a clear-eyed focus on monetary stability.
Crypto, conflicts of interest, and the broader policy backdrop
Crypto surfaced as a concrete touchstone in the hearing. Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis asked Warsh for his view on digital assets, and he responded that digital assets are “part of the fabric of our financial services industry in the United States.” The moment underscored the gravity of crypto’s regulatory and financial integration, and how a new Fed chair might weigh macro policy considerations alongside evolving digital-asset dynamics.
Warsh has pledged to divest from his personal financial holdings, including stakes in crypto and AI-related companies, before taking the oath if confirmed. Supporters argue that divestiture would reduce potential conflicts and bolster confidence in the Fed’s impartiality. Critics, however, point out that even divestment does not fully erase the perception of influence, especially given the scale and variety of assets that a policymaker may encounter in a complex financial system.
The hearing also touched on the broader political atmosphere surrounding the Fed. Trump’s repeated calls for rate cuts and leadership changes have kept the independence debate in the public eye. The Hill has reported that Trump signaled a preference for a rate-cutting stance, which intensifies the relevance of the next chair’s approach to policy. Warsh’s insistence on not tying policy to presidential expectations framed him as a candidate who could, in theory, maintain a degree of policy insulation—if confirmed.
What the markets are pricing in—and what comes next
Powell’s chair term concludes on May 15, leaving a short window for confirmation. If Warsh is not confirmed promptly, Powell might continue temporarily, while Warsh would assume a seat on the Fed’s Board of Governors through 2028 regardless of the outcome. The timing matters not just for policy direction but for the consistency and credibility of the Fed’s forward guidance during a period of elevated market scrutiny over inflation and growth trajectories.
Investors and traders are watching the process closely. Prediction markets have reflected a split in expectations about when a confirmation will occur. On Polymarket, a notable portion of positions bet that Warsh would be confirmed by May 15, but the majority anticipate that a decision may slip beyond June 30. The contrast between these views highlights the variance in perceptions about Senate pace, the likelihood of bipartisan support, and the political sensitivity surrounding a central-bank chair appointment in an election-year environment.
Beyond the chair itself, the dynamic surrounding the Fed’s independence could ripple through markets. A confirmed Warsh might be seen as signaling a commitment to a data-driven, financially prudent approach that could influence risk pricing, quantitative easing expectations, and balance-sheet normalization—especially if his prior records and forthcoming disclosures are interpreted as indicating a measured stance on inflation and growth. By contrast, a protracted confirmation or a transition that keeps Powell in a caretaker role could prolong uncertainty about the Fed’s leadership and its policy trajectory during a volatile macro period.
Next steps and what to watch
As the confirmation process unfolds, the central questions remain: Will Warsh successfully divest from his holdings in time to eliminate real or perceived conflicts? Can the Senate forge a path to confirm a candidate whose independence is under active scrutiny, while ensuring that the Fed remains aligned with its statutory mandate? And how will the markets interpret any shift in the Fed’s leadership, especially if market expectations about rate adjustments or balance-sheet policy diverge from the new chair’s stance?
In the near term, investors should monitor the timeline for the confirmation vote, any additional disclosures from Warsh, and further congressional remarks that clarify how the next Fed chair would balance independence with accountability. The outcome will shape how the Fed communicates its policy outlook, how it manages potential political pressures, and how it integrates the fast-evolving landscape of digital assets into its regulatory and monetary framework.
Readers should stay alert for updates on the confirmation vote schedule, new testimony or filing disclosures, and any shifts in the Fed’s messaging that could signal a new steadiness—or renewed tension—in U.S. monetary policy during a period of macro volatility.
A 50 page quantum computing crypto risk assessment published Tuesday by Coinbase’s independent advisory board concludes that while today’s blockchains remain secure, a fault-tolerant quantum computer capable of breaking widely used encryption is increasingly plausible and that preparation must begin now, warning that “waiting for it to be urgent is not a good idea.”
Summary
- The 50 page paper, authored by an independent board including Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh, Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake, and EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan.
- Replacing today’s signatures with quantum-resistant alternatives could expand blockchain data sizes by up to 38 times, according to one estimate in the report, meaning the transition carries significant engineering costs and performance tradeoffs.
- Bitcoin wallets that have already revealed their public keys are identified as the most immediately vulnerable category of holdings in any future quantum attack scenario.
Quantum computing crypto risk has its most authoritative industry assessment yet. The Coinbase advisory board, a group of world-class cryptographers and blockchain researchers convened by Coinbase in January 2026, released its first major position paper Tuesday: a 50 page analysis of how future quantum computers could affect blockchain security and what the industry must do before that threat becomes real.
“Waiting for it to be urgent is not a good idea,” the paper states, emphasizing that transitions across blockchains, wallets, and exchanges could take years to execute safely even after all the technical standards are in place.
The board members who authored the paper include Dan Boneh, the director of the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research; Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation; Sreeram Kannan, the founder of EigenLayer; Yehuda Lindell, Coinbase’s head of cryptography; and Dahlia Malkhi, an expert in resilient distributed systems. Their institutional breadth gives the paper a credibility that no single-company security assessment would carry.
What the Report Found and What Makes It Credible
The paper’s core conclusion is carefully calibrated: quantum computers today cannot crack the cryptography underpinning Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any major blockchain. Breaking standard encryption would require fault-tolerant quantum machines with vastly more error-corrected qubits than current hardware provides, and achieving that is still considered a major engineering challenge. The report does not predict when that will happen. It argues that the timeline uncertainty itself is the problem.
The threat the paper focuses on most is the harvest now, decrypt later attack: adversaries can collect encrypted blockchain data today and store it, waiting for quantum hardware to mature enough to crack it retroactively. For long-held assets, this is a material risk that begins now rather than when the quantum threat becomes practical. Bitcoin addresses that have already revealed their public keys on-chain are specifically identified as the most immediately exposed category of holdings.
Why the Transition Will Be Harder Than It Sounds
The technical solution to quantum vulnerability already exists: NIST has standardized post-quantum cryptographic algorithms that are mathematically resistant to quantum attacks. The problem is implementation at blockchain scale. Post-quantum digital signatures can be tens to hundreds of times larger than the signatures in use today. One estimate in the Coinbase report suggests that replacing current signatures with quantum-proof alternatives could expand block sizes by up to 38 times.
For a network like Bitcoin, which processes blocks under a strict size limit and where any upgrade requires consensus among a decentralized set of stakeholders with no central authority, a 38-times expansion of signature data is not a parameter adjustment. It is a fundamental architectural change that touches every node, wallet, exchange, and application in the ecosystem. The debate among Bitcoin developers, already underway, reflects exactly this tension between urgency and the cost of change.
What Crypto Networks Are Already Doing
The Coinbase report arrives alongside parallel actions across the ecosystem. Ripple published a four phase XRPL post-quantum roadmap targeting completion by 2028. The Ethereum Foundation has elevated post-quantum security to a top strategic priority with a dedicated research team. Bitcoin developers are actively debating BIP 361, a proposal for a structured migration away from legacy address types that expose public keys.
For the Bitcoin quantum risk assessment specifically, researchers estimate approximately 4.5 million Bitcoin held in early or reused addresses may be exposed to future quantum attacks. The quantum threat debate in Bitcoin has become one of the most contested governance questions in the community, precisely because the solutions require either forcing coin migration or accepting that some portion of the supply may eventually be at risk.
DefiLlama logs 518 crypto hacks and over $17b in losses in 10 years, with attackers shifting from smart contracts to keys, bridges and wallets, as rsETH loses ~$290m.
Summary
- DefiLlama has logged 518 crypto hacking incidents over the past 10 years, with total losses above $17 billion.
- A growing share of that damage comes from private key leaks, phishing and credential theft rather than pure smart contract bugs.
- The latest example is Kelp DAO’s rsETH bridge exploit, which drained about 116,500 rsETH worth roughly $290–$293 million — 2026’s largest DeFi hack so far.
Crypto’s security bill over the past decade has quietly climbed past $17 billion, according to DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph, with at least 518 documented hacks and exploits hitting exchanges, DeFi protocols, bridges and wallets since 2014. That figure captures everything from early exchange blow‑ups to today’s sophisticated cross‑chain attacks, and it comes even as the overall pace of large on‑chain exploits has slowed from peak‑mania years like 2021–2022.
A decade of $17b in crypto losses
Under the surface, however, the composition of those losses is shifting. Where early DeFi hacks often hinged on smart contract bugs and unchecked flash‑loan logic, recent incidents show attackers increasingly targeting the soft tissue around crypto — private keys, signing infrastructure and user devices — with credential theft, social engineering and SIM‑swap‑style attacks. Security firms told Cointelegraph that they expect 2026 to bring more advanced phishing and AI‑assisted scams capable of tricking even technically savvy users into signing malicious transactions or revealing seed phrases.
Bridge infrastructure has been a particular weak point. DefiLlama’s hacks dashboard shows that bridges account for almost $3 billion of the roughly $11.8 billion it categorises as “total value hacked,” with large single incidents like the Ronin, Wormhole and Multichain exploits setting the tone for cross‑chain risk. The latest addition to that list is Kelp DAO’s rsETH cross‑chain bridge, which was hit on April 18 after an attacker forged a cross‑chain message on a LayerZero‑based link and minted or released 116,500 rsETH to an attacker‑controlled address.
Those tokens — representing “restaked” Ether — were worth about $290–$293 million at the time, or roughly 18% of rsETH’s total supply, and have been called the largest DeFi exploit of 2026 so far by outlets including Bloomberg. The incident forced Kelp DAO to pause the bridge, coordinate emergency responses with exchanges and protocols, and sparked a blame game over LayerZero’s default single‑validator configuration, which critics argue left the system effectively one‑key‑away from catastrophic minting.
Even away from headline‑grabbing exploits, everyday credential compromises continue to rack up damage. DefiLlama data cited by Cointelegraph shows that in the first quarter of 2026 alone, hackers stole about $168.6 million from 34 DeFi protocols, with the largest single hit — a $40 million Step Finance theft — traced back to a private key compromise rather than a pure code bug. That trend suggests DeFi’s smart contract security is slowly hardening, while attackers respond by moving upstream into the tools and human processes that sit between wallets and protocols.
For users and teams, the lesson is brutal but clear: audits and formal verification are necessary, but not sufficient. Hardware keys, multi‑sig schemes, segregated signing devices, strict key‑management policies, and relentless phishing hygiene are now as critical to safeguarding crypto as gas optimisations and bug bounties ever were — because it only takes one compromised credential to turn another line in DefiLlama’s hacks database into a nine‑figure loss.
A senior US military commander has lauded Bitcoin as a “valuable computer science tool,” arguing its usefulness extends beyond monetary applications and can support US national security interests.
“It is a valuable computer science tool, as a power projection,” Admiral Samuel Paparo said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday, adding that Bitcoin’s proof-of-work technology “imposes more cost” on attackers attempting to compromise the network:
“Outside of the economic formulation of it, it has got really important computer science applications for cybersecurity.”
The Senate hearing looked into the strategic posture of US forces in Indo-Pacific, including ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, China’s military expansion and coordination with foreign adversaries, and threats from North Korea.
Paparo’s remarks echo similar comments from US Space Force member Jason Lowery in December 2023, who said Bitcoin and other proof-of-work blockchains could protect the US in cyberwarfare.
At the time, he said that while Bitcoin is mostly seen as a “monetary system” to secure funds, few know that Bitcoin can be used to secure “all forms of data, messages or command signals.”
“As a result, this misconception underplays the technology’s broad strategic significance for cybersecurity, and consequently, national security.”
Research into Bitcoin’s use as a cybersecurity tool comes as many adversaries — including state-linked actors — have turned to cyberattacks such as phishing, ransomware and distributed denial-of-service to sabotage infrastructure and secure economic advantages.
North Korea’s notorious Lazarus Group is one of the most notable examples of this, having stolen billions of dollars in crypto over the past decade to support its nuclear program.
Paparo’s comments came in response to a question from US Senator Tommy Tuberville, who asked how the US and Congress can lead on Bitcoin competition, noting that China’s top monetary think tank now also views Bitcoin as a strategic asset.
Paparo didn’t address the question directly but added, “Bitcoin is a reality. It is a peer-to-peer zero-trust transfer of value. Anything that supports all instruments of national power for the United States of America is to the good.”
Senators introduce national security-focused Bitcoin bill
The US holds the largest Bitcoin reserves among nation-states and holds the largest share of Bitcoin hashrate. However, it remains reliant on foreign-manufactured mining equipment, an issue that has raised national security concerns related to supply chain risks.
Related: Quantum threat to Bitcoin still years away, says Borderless Capital partner
Last month, US Senators Bill Cassidy and Cynthia Lummis introduced the Mined in America Act to resolve that issue by bringing more Bitcoin mining manufacturing back to the US.
It also seeks to codify Trump’s executive order establishing the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.
Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1M
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announced Monday the launch of Agentic.market, a marketplace platform for Coinbase AI agents that allows autonomous software agents to discover, compare, and purchase services from other agents without API keys, paying in USDC through the x402 payment protocol, which has already settled approximately 165 million transactions across more than 480,000 transacting agents.
Summary
- The platform organizes services into seven categories: Inference, Data, Media, Search, Social, Infrastructure, and Trading, with launch providers including OpenAI and Venice for inference, Bloomberg and CoinGecko for data, and AWS Lambda and Alchemy for infrastructure.
- Armstrong described the platform as the “discovery layer” for the agentic economy, saying “for the agentic economy to overtake the human economy, agents need a way to discover services.”
- The x402 protocol received backing from Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, and others earlier this month, giving the payment standard broad institutional infrastructure support.
Coinbase AI agents have a dedicated marketplace for the first time. Agentic.market, launched Monday by Coinbase’s x402 protocol team and publicly backed by CEO Brian Armstrong, is designed to function as what Coinbase engineer Erik Reppel, who created the x402 protocol, described as “an app store for agents.” It gives autonomous AI systems a structured way to find services, evaluate them, and pay for them at machine speed using USDC without any human in the loop.
“For the agentic economy to overtake the human economy, agents need a way to discover services,” Armstrong wrote on X in backing the launch. He has previously predicted that “there will be more AI agents transacting online than humans very soon.”
The platform has two distinct interfaces: a web interface for humans to browse and evaluate available services, and a programmatic layer that allows AI agents to search, filter, and integrate new capabilities at runtime without human intervention. An agent on the platform receives both “skills,” code libraries for using a service, and a wallet that enables it to buy and sell autonomously.
How Agentic.market Works and What Is Available at Launch
The marketplace requires no approval process for providers to join. Any service compatible with the x402 standard can be listed. The seven categories at launch cover the full range of capabilities an AI agent might need: inference services for running AI models, data services for market and financial information, media, search, social network access, infrastructure including cloud compute, and trading services for executing financial transactions.
Named services available at launch include OpenAI and Venice in inference, Bloomberg and CoinGecko for financial data, LinkedIn and X for social, and AWS Lambda and Alchemy for infrastructure. The marketplace builds on a backend index called Bazaar, which tracks x402 enabled services and their usage metrics, and turns that raw data into searchable listings with live pricing, performance metrics, and integration guides.
Coinbase reported that 85% of the 165 million x402 transactions already settled have occurred on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2 network built on Ethereum, indicating that the agentic payment economy is already substantially operational rather than hypothetical.
The x402 Protocol and Who Backs It
The x402 protocol, named after the rarely used HTTP status code 402 Payment Required, was first launched by Coinbase in May 2025. It is designed for machine-to-machine payments: fast, low-cost, requiring no identity verification because the agents themselves hold wallets rather than needing to satisfy Know Your Customer requirements tied to human account holders.
Earlier this month, the x402 Foundation was formed to govern the protocol with support from Google, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, American Express, Mastercard, Visa, Cloudflare, Shopify, Stripe, Circle, Base, Polygon Labs, the Solana Foundation, and others. That institutional backing converts x402 from a Coinbase product into a broadly supported open standard, which significantly increases its probability of becoming the default payment layer for agentic commerce.
What This Means for Crypto Markets and USDC
Agentic.market is a direct use case expansion for USDC. Every transaction on the platform settles in USDC. As agent-to-agent commerce scales, it creates a structural demand layer for stablecoins that does not depend on speculation, market cycles, or geopolitical events. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire has projected that “literally billions of AI agents” will be transacting on blockchains within three to five years.
For AI tokens and the infrastructure layer of the crypto AI sector, a Coinbase-backed, institutionally supported marketplace with 480,000 active agents already transacting is a concrete commercial proof point rather than a thesis. For observers tracking the AI bubble debate, the distinction matters: whether AI generates durable revenue through actual transaction volume is the core question, and Agentic.market provides a new data source for that answer.
Crypto World
Bitcoin (BTC) price holds above a make-or-break level before Warsh confirmation hearing
Bitcoin is trading with a positive bias above the $75,000 level, which CoinDesk recently highlighted as a critical threshold for bulls to maintain control.
Still, some observers are urging caution, noting that prices need to hold above that level through Wednesday, when the U.S.–Iran ceasefire is set to end.
“The ceasefire is set to expire Wednesday evening Washington time, and the market has to price two paths, extension and de-escalation versus renewed escalation and oil stress. That is why even with BTC strong, the tape can still gap fast. It is headline risk with a timer,” analysts at Marex said in an email to CoinDesk.
An escalation could take oil prices well above the March high of $119, potentially sending Asian and global equity markets into a tailspin. The question remains whether bitcoin, which held relatively steady around $70,000 during the March conflict, will remain resilient or come under pressure along with the broader market.
As of the time of writing, no delegation from Iran had departed for the talks in Pakistan. On Monday, President Donald Trump warned of a major escalation in the conflict if the ceasefire ends without a deal.
Also on analysts’ radar is Kevin Warsh’s nomination hearing for Federal Reserve chair, scheduled for Tuesday. Warsh has a reputation as an “inflation hawk” who opposed interest-rate cuts and quantitative easing following the 2008 crash.
So what he says during the session could move markets. “His remarks could act as a near-term catalyst, particularly if they reinforce expectations of policy easing,” digital assets trading firm QCP Capital said in a note.
Speaking of the broader market, major cryptocurrencies such as ether (ETH), solana (SOL), and XRP (XRP) have risen by less than 2% over the past 24 hours, underperforming bitcoin. Smaller tokens such as XLM and TON have risen by more than 5% each. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index is up over 3%.
Notably, the DeFi Select Index added 2%, which is surprising given the industry-wide fallout from the weekend hack of KelpDAO. That saw the attacker drain rsETH, a liquid restaking token widely used as collateral on several DeFi platforms.
Decentralized lender Aave has taken the biggest hit, with the total value of crypto assets locked on its platform falling to $16 billion, down nearly $10 billion since before the hack.
Aave’s native token, AAVE, has declined 18% to $93 since the hack. At the same time, open interest in futures tied to the token hit a record high of 3.59 million tokens. Increased demand for leveraged bets points to potential for more volatility ahead. Stay alert!
Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”
What’s trending
Today’s signal
The chart shows XRP’s daily price swings in candlestick format. The white line represents the average price over 100 days and the yellow line represents the prolonged bear market.
XRP remains below both the average and the trendline even as market leaders bitcoin and ether (ETH) have topped these levels on their respective price charts.
Until the price reclaims both the 100-day average and the downtrend line, momentum remains comparatively weak versus BTC and ETH, which have already established firmer bullish structures.
TLDR
- UK officials invited Bybit leadership to London to discuss expansion and crypto regulation.
- CEO Ben Zhou confirmed meetings with the Financial Conduct Authority and the House of Lords.
- Bybit ranks as the second-largest crypto exchange by CoinGecko.
- Zhou said the UK wants major crypto firms to establish bases and create jobs.
- The outreach coincides with UK Fintech Week and Treasury plans for stablecoins and tokenization.
UK officials have invited crypto exchange Bybit to London to explore expansion and regulatory talks. The outreach targets job creation and renewed digital asset activity. CEO Ben Zhou confirmed meetings with regulators and lawmakers this week.
Bybit Signals Potential UK Engagement
Economic development officials linked to the UK government invited Bybit executives to London this week. They aim to attract large crypto firms and rebuild domestic innovation activity. Zhou said officials want major businesses to establish bases and create jobs.
He confirmed meetings with the Financial Conduct Authority and House of Lords representatives. He said discussions will cover forthcoming pro-crypto regulations and payment reforms. “They are very eager to invite big business,” Zhou said during Paris Blockchain Week.
Bybit ranks as the second-largest crypto exchange by CoinGecko. The exchange trails only Binance in global trading volumes. Zhou founded Bybit in 2018 and later shifted the headquarters to Dubai.
He moved the company from Singapore to Dubai in 2022. Binance also established operations in the UAE in 2025. Large exchanges helped attract smaller crypto firms to the region.
UK Targets Momentum Built by Bybit and Binance in UAE
Zhou said major exchanges created momentum in the UAE market. He explained that smaller firms followed after Bybit and Binance announced regional plans. “Once we announced we’re going to be there, smaller players followed,” Zhou said.
He said the UK has yet to build similar traction. He added that policymakers want to replicate the UAE model. “There hasn’t been any momentum built in the UK,” Zhou said.
The invitation coincides with UK Fintech Week events in London. The Treasury plans to revamp payment systems using stablecoins and tokenization. Officials have not disclosed the specific department behind the invitation.
Zhou said an economic development board extended the offer directly. He said the board promised a direct line to the prime minister. “There is an agenda to push for innovation, especially in crypto,” Zhou said.
The Treasury and Economic Secretary, Lucy Rigby, has not issued any comments. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology also declined to respond. The Financial Conduct Authority had not replied at press time.
The outreach follows recent geopolitical tensions affecting the UAE. Iran launched direct attacks during the U.S.-Israel war that began on Feb. 28. Thousands of residents and tourists have left the country.
The Financial Times reported that one in eight British residents departed the UAE. Zhou said UK officials observed capital and company outflows to the Gulf region. He stated that London sees this period as an opportunity.
“The UK government has seen the outflow of money and companies going to the UAE,” Zhou said. He added that officials want to regain that activity. Zhou said the current timing aligns with that objective.
Crypto World
Almost 80% of Japanese institutional investors are eyeing crypto for their portfolios by 2029
Attitudes to crypto investment in Japan are shifting from cautious interest to active portfolio planning, according to a survey by Nomura and its digital asset arm, Laser Digital, with almost 80% of the country’s institutional investors saying they plan to add crypto in the next three years.
The shift reflects a growing view of crypto as a diversification tool. Many of the respondents cited low correlation with traditional asset classes as a key reason for adding exposure. Allocations, though, remain restrained, with more than half targeting between 2% and 5% of their portfolios.
It also reflects improving sentiment: 31% percent of respondents described their outlook on crypto as positive, compared with 25% in 2024, while negative sentiment declined to 18%.
The findings come as Japan refines one of the more established regulatory frameworks for digital assets among major economies. The country was an early mover in regulating crypto exchanges following the Mt. Gox collapse in 2014. Recent efforts have focused on integrating digital assets into existing financial laws, including updates tied to the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.
That clarity has helped foster a domestic crypto ecosystem anchored by major companies such as SBI Holdings, the financial conglomerate that operates one of Japan’s largest crypto businesses, and bitFlyer, a long-standing exchange. Traditional financial institutions have also entered the industry.
Nomura, one of the world’s largest financial services companies, founded Laser Digital in 2022 to expand into trading, asset management and venture investing, while firms like Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group have explored tokenized deposits and stablecoins.
Interest is expanding beyond simple price exposure. More than 60% of respondents expressed interest in income-generating strategies such as staking and lending, as well as derivatives and tokenized assets. That suggests investors are beginning to treat crypto less as a speculative trade and more as a broader financial toolkit.
Stablecoins are another area of focus. Sixty-three percent of respondents identified potential use cases, including treasury management, cross-border payments and foreign exchange transactions. Trust appears to be highest for stablecoins issued by major financial institutions, highlighting the importance of familiar counterparties.
Still, barriers remain. Investors pointed to challenges including the lack of established valuation frameworks, counterparty risks such as fraud or asset loss, and regulatory uncertainty. High volatility also continues to weigh on adoption.
Even so, those concerns are shifting. Rather than debating whether to invest, institutions are now focused on how to do it.
The survey was conducted in December and January and gathered responses from 518 investment professionals, including institutional investors, family offices and public-interest organizations.
The most urgent crypto scam news on Capitol Hill arrived Tuesday as the House Homeland Security Committee held a joint subcommittee hearing on how transnational criminal organizations use crypto fraud, online scams, and digital extortion to steal from Americans.
Summary
- The FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Complaint Center report documented $16.6 billion in total scam losses, with crypto investment fraud alone accounting for $5.8 billion.
- The Huione Group, a Cambodia-based conglomerate designated by FinCEN as a primary money laundering concern, received over $39.6 billion in 2025, functioning as core financial infrastructure for scam networks.
- US authorities seized more than $15 billion in illicit proceeds tied to scam activity in 2025 and sanctioned 146 Prince Group targets in October, marking some of the largest enforcement actions in crypto history.
Crypto scam news reached Congress Tuesday morning as the Subcommittees on Border Security and Enforcement and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection convened in Room 310 of the Cannon House Office Building for a joint hearing titled “Online Scams, Crypto Fraud, and Digital Extortion: An Examination of How Transnational Criminal Networks Target Americans.”
Cynthia Kaiser, senior vice president of the Halcyon Ransomware Research Center, testified as a witness, providing technical context on how criminal networks use digital extortion tools alongside crypto investment fraud schemes to maximize victim losses and minimize traceability.
The hearing draws on a documented surge in transnational criminal activity. The FBI’s IC3 report recorded 859,532 scam complaints in 2024 with $16.6 billion in losses. Investment fraud, predominantly pig butchering schemes operated from Southeast Asia, caused $5.8 billion of that total. Victims aged 60 and older bore the highest losses of any age group.
The Scale of the Criminal Infrastructure Being Examined
The networks at the center of the hearing are not loosely organized. They are industrial operations with real estate, corporate structures, and international banking relationships. The Chainalysis 2026 Crypto Crime Report documented that the Huione Group received $39.6 billion in transactions in 2025 alone after FinCEN designated it a primary money laundering concern under the USA PATRIOT Act. Prince Group, a Cambodia-based transnational criminal organization operating forced labor scam compounds, was sanctioned by OFAC in October 2025 with 146 targets designated across the network.
The pig butchering model is the dominant scheme: scammers build trust with victims over weeks or months through fake relationships before directing them to fraudulent crypto investment platforms. Once funds are deposited, the platforms close. Proceeds move through shell companies, crypto wallets, and professional money laundering networks based in Southeast Asia before being converted or consolidated. TRM Labs found that these networks have become more professionalized each year, with AI tools now reducing the time required to build trust with victims.
What Enforcement Has Achieved and What Remains
US authorities have escalated enforcement significantly. They crypto seized over $61 million in Tether tied to pig butchering in North Carolina alone, and the October 2025 Prince Group seizure involving approximately 127,271 Bitcoin was described as the largest financial forfeiture in American history at the time. Total illicit proceeds seized or forfeited in 2025 linked to scam activity exceeded $15 billion according to Chainalysis.
The persistent structural challenge is jurisdiction. The criminal networks operate from countries with weak law enforcement cooperation agreements. Victims move funds through US-based crypto exchanges before the money reaches overseas wallets, making the domestic on-ramp the most accessible intervention point. Congress is considering legislation including the Dismantle Foreign Scam Syndicates Act, which would establish an interagency task force and authorize targeted sanctions against compound operators and their financial intermediaries.
What the Hearing Signals for Crypto Regulation
The hearing is notable for what it does not do: it does not frame crypto itself as the problem. The focus is on transnational criminal organizations exploiting the technology. That framing matters for the regulatory environment around the CLARITY Act and stablecoin legislation, where the industry has argued that clear rules reduce illicit use by creating regulated on-ramps with strong compliance requirements. A Congress that treats crypto as a tool of crime will write different legislation than one that treats it as infrastructure being exploited by criminals who would otherwise use other payment rails.
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W Vavada online casino możesz znaleźć wiele automatów do gry, w tym klasyki, takie jak Book of Ra, Sizzling Hot i Lucky Lady’s Charm, a także nowe, innowacyjne gry, które oferują wiele emocji i szans na wygraną.
Automaty do gry w Vavada online casino są dostępne w różnych wariantach, w tym w wersjach demo, które pozwalają na darmowe gry, a także w wersjach realnych, które oferują szansę na wygraną pieniędzy.
Jeśli szukasz online casino, które oferuje najlepsze warunki gry, to Vavada jest idealnym wyborem. Ta platforma gry online oferuje wiele korzyści, w tym bezpieczne i szybkie wypłaty, a także profesjonalny obsługę klienta.
W Vavada online casino możesz znaleźć wiele innych korzyści, w tym wiele bonusów i promocji, które mogą pomóc Ci zwiększyć Twoje szanse na wygraną. Dlatego, jeśli szukasz online casino, które oferuje najlepsze warunki gry, to Vavada jest idealnym wyborem.
Wreszcie, jeśli szukasz online casino, które oferuje najlepsze automaty do gry, to Vavada jest idealnym wyborem. Ta platforma gry online oferuje wiele korzyści, w tym szeroki wybór automatów do gry, które mogą zaspokoić gusta każdego gracza.
Zarejestruj się teraz w Vavada online casino i zacznij gry!
Wspomnij, że Vavada online casino oferuje wiele korzyści, w tym bezpieczne i szybkie wypłaty, a także profesjonalny obsługę klienta. Dlatego, jeśli szukasz online casino, które oferuje najlepsze warunki gry, to Vavada jest idealnym wyborem.
Wybór najlepszych automatów do gry
Jeśli szukasz najlepszych automatów do gry w Vavada online casino w Polsce, to jesteś w odpowiednim miejscu. W tym artykule przedstawimy Ci kilka najlepszych automatów do gry, które warto sprawdzić.
Wśród wielu automatów do gry, które są dostępne w Vavada online casino, warto wyróżnić kilka najlepszych. Na przykład, “Book of Dead” jest jednym z najpopularniejszych automatów do gry, które oferuje Vavada. To 5-rolowe gry, które oferuje wiele bonusów i możliwości wygrania. Inny popularny automat do gry, który warto sprawdzić, to “Starburst”. To 5-rolowe gry, które oferuje wiele możliwości wygrania i jest dostępne w wersji demo.
Co warto sprawdzić przed wyborem automatów do gry?
Przed wyborem automatów do gry, warto sprawdzić kilka rzeczy. Na przykład, warto sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w wersji demo, aby móc zagrać w nim bezpłatnie. Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry oferuje bonusy i możliwości wygrania. Ponadto, warto sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w różnych wersjach, aby móc wybrać tę, która najlepiej pasuje do Twoich potrzeb.
Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w różnych walutach, aby móc grać w nim w walucie, którą preferujesz.
Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry oferuje możliwość wygrania, aby móc zyskać pieniądze. Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w różnych wersjach, aby móc wybrać tę, która najlepiej pasuje do Twoich potrzeb.
Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w różnych walutach, aby móc grać w nim w walucie, którą preferujesz.
Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry oferuje możliwość wygrania, aby móc zyskać pieniądze. Warto również sprawdzić, czy automat do gry jest dostępny w różnych wersjach, aby móc wybrać tę, która najlepiej pasuje do Twoich potrzeb.
Wady i zalety gry w Vavada
Gry w Vavada online casino to coraz to bardziej popularne, a przyczyna tego jest prosta: Vavada casino oferuje wiele korzyści, które sprawiają, że gry w nim są niezwykle atrakcyjne. Jednak, aby zrozumieć, czym jest Vavada online casino, a jakie korzyści oferuje, musimy poznać jego wady i zalety.
Wady gry w Vavada:
W Vavada online casino nie ma możliwości gry w kasynie na żywo, co może być problemem dla niektórych graczy.
Wady gry w Vavada:
W Vavada online casino nie ma możliwości gry w kasynie na żywo, co może być problemem dla niektórych graczy.
Wady gry w Vavada: korzyści
W Vavada online casino istnieje wiele korzyści, które sprawiają, że gry w nim są niezwykle atrakcyjne. Jednak, aby zrozumieć, czym jest Vavada online casino, a jakie korzyści oferuje, musimy poznać jego wady i zalety.
W Vavada online casino istnieje wiele korzyści, które sprawiają, że gry w nim są niezwykle atrakcyjne. Jednak, aby zrozumieć, czym jest Vavada online casino, a jakie korzyści oferuje, musimy poznać jego wady i zalety.
W Vavada online casino istnieje wiele korzyści, które sprawiają, że gry w nim są niezwykle atrakcyjne. Jednak, aby zrozumieć, czym jest Vavada online casino, a jakie korzyści oferuje, musimy poznać jego wady i zalety.
Rejestracja i wypłata w Vavada
W Vavada online casino, rejestracja i wypłata są procesami prostymi i szybkimi, które umożliwiają naszym klientom korzystanie z naszych automatów do gry. Aby zarejestrować się w Vavada, należy wykonać następujące kroki:
1. Kliknij na przycisk “Zarejestruj się” na stronie głównej Vavada.
2. Wprowadź swoje dane, w tym imię, nazwisko, adres e-mail i hasło.
3. Wypełnij formularz rejestracyjny, podając swoje dane kontaktowe, takie jak numer telefonu i adres.
4. Kliknij na przycisk “Zarejestruj się” aby zakończyć proces rejestracji.
Wypłata
W Vavada, wypłata jest procesem prostym i szybkim, który umożliwia naszym klientom otrzymywać swoje wygrane. Aby wypłacić swoje wygrane, należy wykonać następujące kroki:
1. Kliknij na przycisk “Wypłata” w swoim koncie użytkownika.
2. Wybierz metodę wypłaty, taką jak bankowość elektroniczna lub kartą kredytową.
3. Wprowadź kwotę wypłaty, którą chcesz otrzymać.
4. Kliknij na przycisk “Wypłata” aby zakończyć proces wypłaty.
W Vavada, wypłata jest dostępna 24/7, a naszym klientom nie jest wymagane wypełnienie żadnych dodatkowych formularzy. Nasze systemy wypłaty są zabezpieczone, aby zapewnić bezpieczeństwo i poufność transakcji.
Jeśli masz jakiekolwiek pytania lub problem z wypłatą, prosimy o kontakt z naszymi operatorami, którzy będą gotowi pomóc.
CoinDesk Indices presents its daily market update, highlighting the performance of leaders and laggards in the CoinDesk 20 Index.
The CoinDesk 20 is currently trading at 2101.48, down 0.2% (-4.06) since 4 p.m. ET on Monday.
Ten of 20 assets are trading higher.
Leaders: XLM (+3.3%) and AAVE (+1.9%).
Laggards: ETH (-0.9%) and APT (-0.6%).
The CoinDesk 20 is a broad-based index traded on multiple platforms in several regions globally.
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