Free Republic

Unless Bitcoin upgrades its core cryptography in the next five years, the trust it has built over 16 years could be wiped out by a single quantum attack. Urgent upgrades are needed to protect the world’s leading cryptocurrency. Satoshi Nakamoto changed how we define money. In response to the 2008 collapse of the financial institutions in which millions put their trust, Satoshi created a decentralized monetary system built on elliptic curve cryptography. This combination of cold math and decentralization was a powerful one, attracting not only diehard skeptics but also the world’s largest financial institutions, such as BlackRock. In the...

Crypto industry observers were baffled Wednesday afternoon when an on-chain transaction showed that Paxos, the issuer behind the PayPal-branded PYUSD stablecoin, minted $300 trillion worth of the tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. A little over 20 minutes later, all 300 trillion PYUSD tokens were "burned," or effectively destroyed, by sending them to an inaccessible network address. For context, $300 trillion is more than 2.5 times larger than the entire world’s GDP, which is approximately $117 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund. There is also only $2.4 trillion in physical U.S. dollars in circulation, per TradingEconomics. It cost just $2.66...

If the dollar dominates stablecoins, America could dominate global finance for centuries“I will make sure the US is the crypto capital of the world,” Donald Trump vowed earlier this year. In July, he signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (Genius) Act. The Act creates federal guardrails for dollar-pegged stablecoins and regulates who can issue and redeem them. Concerns from law enforcement are also addressed, by making sure anti-money laundering and consumer regulation applies. But what are stablecoins? They are digital tokens built to stay at a stable price, usually one dollar. They sit on the blockchain...

Bitcoin valued at $15 billion has been seized by the Department of Justice (DOJ) from a massive "pig butchering" network, and in what officials say is the "largest forfeiture action in U.S. history." Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, unsealed an indictment Tuesday charging Chen Zhi, also known as "Vincent," leader of the Prince Holding Group, in connection with the crypto scam scheme, based out of Cambodia. Zhi, 37, who is still at large, is also accused of directing Prince Group’s operation of forced-labor scam compounds across the country. The DOJ said Zhi used violence to discipline workers. Images of...

Konstantin Ganich, a Ukrainian crypto blogger and trader known online as Kostya Kudo, was found dead in a Lamborghini today amid a severe cryptocurrency market downturn. The incident occurred as digital assets experienced extreme volatility, intensifying ongoing discussions about mental health challenges facing crypto traders and influencers. Ukraine has seen growing cryptocurrency adoption as residents seek economic resilience amid national financial pressures. Galish had been promoting trading strategies during this period of market instability. Recent crypto market fluctuations have created widespread distress across the trading community, particularly affecting high-profile investors and social media influencers who built followings around digital asset...

Crypto prices tumbled amid investor concerns over economic stability and escalating trade disputes. Bitcoin and Ethereum, the two major cryptocurrencies, crashed after United States President Donald Trump announced a 100% tariff on 'any and all critical software' import goods from China. The continuing trade tensions between the two countries were significantly heightened by this move. According to Reuters, Bitcoin had dropped 8.4% to £78,000 ($104,782) as of 21:20 GMT. Ethereum also had a 5.8% decline, settling at £2,700 ($3,637). XRP, DOGE and Ada fell around 19%, 27%, and 25% in the last 24 hours, respectively, Bloomberg reported.…..

Gold is in the middle of what looks like an unstoppable bull run. It has already punched through $4,000 an ounce. At the rate the price is rising, it may well go to $5,000 within a few weeks, and perhaps even $6,000 as the next year unfolds. There have been lots of different explanations for this, from the looming collapse of the dollar, to secret Chinese buying, to the conspiracy theories circulating on the wilder fringes of the internet, such a secret plot to re-establish the gold standard, or attempts to replace all the metal that is meant to be...

Monday's off to a busy start! As investors and traders await any developments from Washington DC, Tom White points out the fact that in the previous 5 government shutdowns equity markets actually rose higher. He joins Diane King Hall to set up the trading week before turning to a pair of big premarket movers. AMD (AMD) is jumping on news that it reached a deal to sell a potential 10% stake to OpenAI in tranches. And, Micron (MU) begins Monday's action with an upgrade at Morgan Stanley and a new price target to $220. Market Rally: AMD/OpenAI Deal, MU Upgrade...

Cryptocurrency traders saw more than $1.5 billion in bullish wagers liquidated on Monday, triggering a sharp selloff that hit smaller tokens hardest. Ether slumped as much as 9% to $4,075 as nearly half a billion dollars of leveraged long positions in the second-largest token were liquidated, according to data from Coinglass. Bitcoin declined almost 3% to $111,998. Insatiable demand from publicly-listed vehicles bent on hoarding tokens drove both Bitcoin and Ether to all-time highs in August, but there are now signs that the momentum generated by so-called digital-asset treasury companies is beginning to fade. Japan’s Metaplanet, a high-profile Bitcoin buyer,...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a dig at President Donald Trump on Tuesday for using his office for personal gain. Clinton quoted an X post from Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), who accused Trump and his family of corruption, citing the reported $5 billion fortune from World Liberty Financial (WLFI) token, a $400 million plane from Qatar and deals with Amazon and CBS. "Everyone else gets: higher prices for health care, electricity, and groceries. Corruption, plain and simple," Casar said. Trending: The same firms that backed Uber, Venmo and eBay are investing in this pre-IPO company disrupting a $1.8T...

By day, Brian Krewson is a technical expert at computing giant Oracle. But by night he’s Mr. Poto, a fire-breathing, stilt-walking party entertainer, happy to perform at birthdays, weddings and corporate picnics. A Facebook photo from Halloween 2020 shows Krewson dressed in full methlab attire as a remarkably convincing Walter White, the infamous drug trafficker played by Brian Cranston in Breaking Bad. According to a Justice Department DOC, Krewson's resemblance to that character extends beyond appearance. The agency alleges that Krewson helped store and launder $54 million worth of cryptocurrency for two friends, Christopher Castelluzzo and Luke Atwell, who were...

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - A bitcoin company tied to President Donald Trump's two oldest sons more than doubled in value in its stock market debut on Wednesday, valuing the sons' stake at well over $1.5 billion as the first family grows their crypto business interests. Shares in American Bitcoin Corp , a bitcoin miner, soared as high as $14.52 in its first day of trade on the Nasdaq, before pulling back to be up 16.5% at $8.04 by the end of the day. The company is around 20% owned by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, American Bitcoin...

Imagine if some of us still drove horse-drawn carriages for our daily commutes while others zoomed around in the newest-model cars. That is the gap — in terms of speed, technical innovation and consumer benefit — between how we use money today and what stablecoins promise. Recent analysis suggests that many Americans still have no idea what stablecoins are. But now that Congress has passed the bipartisan GENIUS Act — the first federal framework for stablecoins — rapid adoption is likely. Understanding how these digital dollars work will be not just helpful but necessary. Put simply, a stablecoin is a...

A Welsh police force is investigating the 'staggering' fraud as it warns of a 'disturbing new trend'Police have launched an investigation after a Welsh victim was swindled out of £2.1m in a "staggering" Bitcoin scam. They were tricked into surrendering a password by a cyber criminal pretending to be a senior law enforcement officer. Within moments they had lost assets worth millions. North Wales Police is now investigating in an attempt to catch the perpetrators and retrieve the funds, as they issued a warning to anyone who owns cryptocurrency. North Wales Police have released a statement on the investigation....

Quote of the week: “Bitcoin is a remarkable cryptographic achievement, and the ability to create something that is not duplicable in the digital world has enormous value.” - Eric Schmidt, former CEO and executive chairman of Google. Back in December of last year, we mentioned how institutional adoption of Bitcoin could change the narrative. It seems that the narrative is playing out. Since we wrote that piece, we now have endowments, corporations, and the U.S. government openly allocating capital to bitcoin (or at least planning to). So this week, we’re going to look at the regulatory changes, how adoption has...

Last week, I wrote about what I believe is one of the most significant developments in Bitcoin’s history — and possibly one of the most underappreciated risks in modern finance. The Trump administration has now formally approved a framework that allows Bitcoin to be offered as an investment option in select 401(k) retirement plans, while at the same time stablecoins are making up an increasingly larger bid for U.S. Treasuries, both of which are weaving crypto the furthest it’s ever been to the U.S. economy. That’s not just “more adoption.” It’s the infiltration of Bitcoin into the cornerstone of American...

Donald Trump is making good on his pre-election promises and continues to push for favorable crypto regulations. Today, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an Executive Order that aims to allow 401(k) investors access to alternative assets (such as digital assets). According to the official announcement: “The order directs the Secretary of Labor to reexamine the Department of Labor’s guidance on a fiduciary’s duties regarding alternative asset investments in ERISA-governed 401(k) and other defined-contribution plans.” This comes as part of Trump’s plans to establish the country as the leading player in the cryptocurrency industry. To this point,...

U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to allow private equity, real estate, cryptocurrency, and other alternative assets in 401(k) retirement accounts. The order smoothes the way for private equity and other fund managers to tap into trillions of dollars of Americans' retirement savings. It could open up a vast new funding source to managers of alternative assets outside of stocks, bonds, and cash, though critics say it also could bring too much risk into retirement investments. "The Securities and Exchange Commission must consider ways to facilitate access to alternative asset investments by participants in...

Based on 2025 assessments from NIST, IBM, and expert surveys, the probability of quantum computing cracking SHA-256 (via Grover's algorithm, reducing preimage search to ~2^128 operations) is near 0% in the next 5 years and It requires millions of error-corrected qubits; current systems top ~1,000 noisy ones. Bitcoin's hashing remains secure for now.

A 300‑billion‑dollar manager has forecast what could become the largest institutional inflow in crypto history. Mark Yusko, CEO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, expects roughly $300 billion to pour into Bitcoin and crypto markets over the next 12 months, driven in part by baby boomers entering via retirement accounts and ETFs. Mark Yusko believes that within 12 months, $300 billion will flow into the crypto sphere – this is 1% of $30 trillion. He linked the potential surge to spot Bitcoin ETF approvals in the U.S., which he sees as a key on-ramp for institutional capital previously excluded by custody...