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...

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...

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York and the Justice Department’s National Security Division also filed today a civil forfeiture complaint against approximately 127,271 Bitcoin, currently worth approximately $15 billion, that are proceeds and instrumentalities of the defendant’s fraud and money laundering schemes, and were previously stored in unhosted cryptocurrency wallets whose private keys the defendant had in his possession. Those funds (the Defendant Cryptocurrency) are presently in the custody of the U.S. government. The complaint is the largest forfeiture action in the history of the Department of Justice.

I have, like so many others, been wrong about Bitcoin and crypto. But timing is not destination, and I believe one day there will be a rug-pull that will wipe trillions off the face of the crypto earth. This might happen when Bitcoin is $200,000 or $2 million, but it will happen. For the uninitiated, a rug-pull is a coordinated effort by a concentrated group to sell their crypto holdings at a price they are content with, leaving the foolish masses with nothing but losses. It is transfer of wealth from a large to a small group. One recent and...

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...

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,...

An international law enforcement operation called Operation Box Cutter has shut down a major criminal enterprise that was supplying precursor drugs that were used in the manufacture of fentanyl. FBI Director Kash Patel announced that 22 Chinese nationals, four Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and three Americans had been arrested in what Patel referred to as an "unprecedented" operation. "We're done playing whack-a-mole," Patel said during a press conference in Cincinnati. "We didn't arrest a couple of people. We charged an enterprise-wide system in mainland China to include dozens of individuals and banks and companies that are responsible for making these lethal...

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...

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...

Harvard Management Company made substantial new investments in exchange-traded funds tracking the value of gold and Bitcoin during the second quarter of 2025, marking a sharp shift in its directly held public equities portfolio after it backed out of many Big Tech positions last quarter. The endowment purchased 1.9 million shares of iShares Bitcoin Trust, valued at $116.7 million, and 333,000 shares of SPDR Gold Trust, valued at $101.5 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday. SPDR Gold Trust — one of the world’s largest gold ETFs — is backed by physical gold stored in...

The Trump family’s crypto venture has generated more wealth since the election—some $4.5 billion—than any other part of the president’s business empire. A major reason for the success is a partnership with an under-the-radar trading platform quietly administered by Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, whose founder is seeking a pardon from President Trump, according to people familiar with the matter. The online trading platform, PancakeSwap, serves as an incubator of sorts, drumming up interest among traders to use coins issued by the Trump family’s main crypto company, World Liberty Financial. The more World Liberty’s flagship coin, USD1, is used,...

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...

Since returning to office in January 2025, President Donald Trump has shown a marked shift in his approach to South Asian geopolitics, displaying what analysts describe as a more favorable stance toward Pakistan while simultaneously straining relations with India. This represents a significant departure from decades of U.S. foreign policy that had increasingly favored New Delhi as a strategic counterweight to China. The most striking aspect of this policy shift appears to be intertwined with the Trump family’s business ventures. World Liberty Financial (WLF), founded in 2024, is no ordinary fintech startup. The company is 60% owned by Donald Trump’s...

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...

Less than a year after President Trump won over the cryptocurrency crowd, some Democrats are trying to reclaim those voters — and the hundreds of millions they pour into elections — ahead of the midterm elections. They believe backing crypto-friendly Republican-led bills — namely the Genius Act, which passed earlier this month, and the Clarity Act, which is still awaiting final passage — as a critical step to rebuild trust with the digital asset community. “I’ve watched optimistically as American Democrats begin to tiptoe toward crypto,” Alex Konanykhin, founder and CEO of Unicoin, an equity-backed cryptocurrency, told me. He noted,...

Key points:* Bitcoin ditches its latest dip as strategic reserve hopes replace nerves over Federal Reserve policy. * BTC price aims for $119,000, gaining nearly 3% versus FOMC meeting lows. * Corporate Bitcoin treasuries add almost 30,000 BTC of exposure in just 48 hours despite market volatility. Bitcoin saw a snap rebound Thursday as markets swapped Federal Reserve angst for strategic reserve excitement. Bitcoin traders eye strategic reserve as rate cut bets dive Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD bouncing nearly 3% from Wednesday’s local lows. These had accompanied a more hawkish than expected Federal Reserve meeting...

With the Trump Administration headed down the road to higher inflation and the political chaos that results, it is worth asking why there are “only” $4 trillion in notional crypto tokens, this according to the Financial Times. The rise of bitcoin and other ethereal instruments evidences a strong desire on the part of many Americans to escape a sinking ship, but also confirms the love for creating new games to enable speculation. Are the crypto tokens really a way to avoid the demise of fiat dollars? As we noted in a recent comment in The Institutional Risk Analyst, the best...

While the world was distracted by the Epstein debacle, legislators introduced the GENUIS Act that would permit the US government to regulate stablecoins. The GENUIS (Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), primarily sponsored by Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tennessee), permits the government to oversee, regulate, and define the $250 billion stablecoin market. Now, stablecoins differ from cryptocurrencies as they are pegged to a stable asset such as a fiat currency or commodity. Cryptocurrencies are allegedly allowed to freely operate on the market based on supply and demand. The GENIUS Act will peg stablecoins to the US dollar and...

Despite having called Bitcoin BTC +0.59% an "immature asset class" that is inappropriate for long-term investors, Vanguard Group has become the largest shareholder in Strategy, according to a report from Bloomberg. Through its funds, the $10-trillion money manager owns 20 million Strategy shares or 8% of the outstanding common stock, according to a Bloomberg chart. Vanguard most likely passed Capital Group Cos. to become the top shareholder of Strategy shares during the fourth quarter, the report said. Strategy (ticker MSTR), formerly known as MicroStrategy, has become a proxy bet for Bitcoin as the company's chief business proposition has been acquiring...