Free Republic

Top Democratic operatives and donors have been hobnobbing in “luxury hotels” while trying to figure out why the party is shedding men and the working class — moves that have liberals have slammed as out of touch. In one instance, liberal super PAC Future Forward hosted a gathering in the Ritz-Carlton resort in wealthy Half Moon Bay, California, to apprise donors on what went wrong in 2024. Prominent figures such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) were reported in attendance. Some of the elite gatherings featured appetizers like short-rib tostones, mini lobster rolls, beef...

The 37-year-old Crypto trader accused of kidnapping a 28-year-old Italian man inside a luxurious SoHo apartment repeatedly shocked his victim with electric wires, held him upside down from the top of a staircase, cut his leg with a saw and threatened to kill the victim’s family — all to get the password to the man’s Bitcoin account, prosecutors said Saturday. Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Eric Schumacher ordered John Woeltz held without bail on assault and kidnapping charges as police continued to search for his accomplice. He also issued a restraining order against Woeltz, so if he does get out of...

A gang of wealthy 'crypto bros' have been arrested for luring their former business partner to a stunning New York City mansion before torturing him for weeks. The group are accused of kidnapping the 28-year-old Italian man before committing sickening acts on him in the $75,000-per-month rented brownstone in Soho. They alleged to have Tazed him, pistol-whipped him and threatened to carve him up with a chainsaw if he did not give up the millions of dollars in his crypto account. But their plot was foiled when the victim - who has not been named - escaped and flagged down...

A month before President Trump’s inauguration, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff flew to the United Arab Emirates with two goals: discussing regional issues with the Abu Dhabi royal known as the “spy sheikh,” and attending a cryptocurrency conference. Less than five months later, Witkoff’s son, co-founder of the crypto venture World Liberty Financial, took the stage at a conference in Dubai to announce the company had struck a deal for the sheikh’s company to buy $2 billion of their new cryptocurrency. The expected tens of millions of dollars in annual profits would be split between the Witkoffs and their co-founders—and...

In a massive sting operation straight out of a crime thriller, Spanish police have smashed one of Europe’s most powerful underworld banks – a slick, secretive syndicate laundering millions using the ancient and shadowy “hawala” method. Cash, crypto and contraband – the works. In unbelievable scenes, Spain’s National Police, backed by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, swooped on a web of luxury and illegality. The secret January raids – now revealed – saw over 250 officers hit 13 locations across Spain and Belgium in a coordinated blitz, nabbing 17 suspects, seizing mountains of loot and blowing apart a money-moving machine that had...

Imagine walking into a store in the near future–not with cash, not with a card, but with your eyes. No wallet, no phone. Just your iris. It sounds like science fiction. But it’s happening now, and it’s called Worldcoin. This is no ordinary tech rollout. The project, co-founded by OpenAI/ChatGPT CEO Sam Altman, is expanding rapidly across the world, offering people free cryptocurrency in exchange for one thing: a scan of their eyeball.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is officially launching his digital ID and cryptocurrency project, Worldcoin, in the United States. Worldcoin uses eye-scanning technology to confirm a person’s identity in a system called World ID. World ID is a digital ID that uses biometric verification to confirm payments and prove a person’s identity. Altman is hoping that Worldcoin will create a global identity and digital cash payment system.

It all happened overnight and in a matter of minutes. Ben Zhou, CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit, made a series of routine transfers from his home computer. A short while later, his company called to inform him that his reserves of Ethereum, the second most-used cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, worth $1.5 billion, had vanished. By then, the ethers had already been transferred to thousands of other people’s digital wallets. Bybit had just suffered the largest theft in history. Five days later, the FBI confirmed what some analysts suspected from the outset: the attack was the work of Lazarus, a hacking...

Are you ready for the Circle IPO? The “stablecoin” giant just filed to go public. It’s aiming for a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion and plans to list on the NYSE as early as June under the ticker CRCL. It will be the biggest crypto IPO since Coinbase (COIN) went public back in 2021. Circle is the company behind USD Coin (USDC)— the world’s second-biggest stablecoin. I’ll share my favorite way to profit from the rise of stablecoins in a minute. First, let me quickly break down what stablecoins are and why they’re a huge disruption to the...

Mr. Armstrong, I just had to write in to say thank you for explaining that Bitcoin was just a trading asset, not some new currency that would replace the dollar. I understand that money must be elastic to grow with society in economic booms and population. I just read a quote reported by Bloomberg: “After four years of political purgatory, Bitcoin and the entire digital-asset ecosystem are on the brink of entering the financial mainstream.” I know a programmer who said you were correct that the Deep State created blockchain. Has this recent rise been orchestrated to get us to...

In just seven short years, Malone Lam Yu Xuan went from being a student in a secondary school in Choa Chu Kang to being dubbed crypto whizz-kid by some in the US in 2023. Many who saw his spending spree were amazed a 19-year-old could afford large mansions, a fleet of expensive cars and luxury clothes. In truth, Lam was living off the millions in crypto he stole from various investors, he later told investigators in the US. This was before August 2024, when he allegedly got involved in the theft of Bitcoin valued at more than US$240 million (S$320...

On March 17, US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor Elon Musk claimed that there are “Magic Money Computers” operational at several government departments that can “make money out of thin air.” Musk made the remark while speaking to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during the "Verdict" podcast.Well-known for his dynamic ventures such as Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter), Musk was appointed by Trump as the de-facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The department has been focused on slashing government expenditure for several programs.In the conversation with Cruz, Musk claimed that the DOGE team has discovered 14 “Magic...

President Donald Trump established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a stockpile of other digital assets through an executive order on Thursday. The Treasury Department will set up an office to administer the reserve, which will be capitalized with Bitcoin (BTC) forfeited to the government as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, according to the order. “Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency,” the order said. “Because there is a fixed supply of BTC, there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.” The order also created a US Digital Asset Stockpile under...

Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are targets of choice for online criminals, who often exploit weaknesses in major trading platforms or individual users’ digital “wallets” to make major scores. A recent $1.5-billion heist of Ethereum from the Bybit platform — attributed by the FBI to North Korean hackers — is believed to be the largest yet in an ever-longer litany of thefts. How common is crypto theft? Cryptocurrencies are based on blockchain technology, which publicly records transactions between people holding and exchanging them. That has not kept a lid on theft, with an estimated $2.2 billion worth of the assets...

The cryptocurrency market surged over the weekend after President Trump announced his plans to create a strategic crypto reserve and hinted at details about the highly anticipated plan. Bitcoin surged from nearly $85,000 to $94,000 on Sunday in the hours following Trump’s announcement on Truth Social. As of Monday, Bitcoin was trading at more than $91,400, marking a drastic increase from its three-month low of nearly $78,000 last Friday, according to CoinMarketCap In a Truth Social post Sunday morning, Trump said a U.S. “crypto reserve” will “elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration.” “Which...

Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson BREAKING: President Trump just announced the creation of a U.S. Crypto Reserve.

President Donald Trump is scheduled to host an event on cryptocurrency at the White House next week. The Crypto Summit will be held on Friday, marking the first-ever White House event of its kind. Trump is expected to deliver remarks during the summit, the White House said. The event will include "prominent founders, CEOs, and investors from the crypto industry, as well as members of the president’s Working Group on Digital Assets," according to the White House. The summit will be led by venture capitalist and White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks and will be administered by the...

A major cryptocurrency exchange says it was the victim of a sophisticated hack that stole about $1.5 billion worth of digital currency, marking one of the biggest online thefts of all time. Bybit said Friday that a routine transfer of Ethereum, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, between digital wallets was “manipulated” by an attacker who transferred the crypto to an unidentified address. The company sought to reassure customers that their cryptocurrency holdings with the exchange were safe. The company added that news of the hack had led to a surge in withdrawal requests and there could be delays in...

Argentine President Javier Milei could face an impeachment trial in Congress, opposition lawmakers said on Saturday, after the libertarian leader touted a cryptocurrency which crashed soon after.

Dave Portnoy, founder of Barstool Sports, promoted a new meme coin called Jailstool yesterday, making its market cap surge by 119,000% in less than five hours, with its price up by 2.6 million percent in the past twenty-four hours. The token instantly became popular after Dave tweeted and held a late-night X Space with his 3.5 million followers.