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  • Moment wealthy 'crypto bros' are dragged out of their stunning NYC mansion for kidnapping and torturing their business partner for WEEKS

    05/24/2025 8:48:45 AM PDT · by dennisw · 43 replies
    DAILYMAIL.COM ^ | 24 May 2025 | By KELLY GARINO FOR
    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...
  • The Father Pursues Trump’s Diplomatic Deals. The Son Chases Crypto Deals.

    05/23/2025 6:12:17 AM PDT · by karpov · 10 replies
    Wall Street Journal ^ | May 22, 2025 | Rebecca Ballhaus and Angus Berwick
    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...
  • Pakistan Inked Deal With Crypto Company In Which Trump Kin Has 60% Stake

    05/19/2025 5:49:29 AM PDT · by SeekAndFind · 11 replies
    Times of India ^ | 05/14/2025 | Pradeep Thakur
    NEW DELHI: US President Donald Trump’s attempt to be a broker in the conflict between India and Pakistan has the spotlight on a deal the hostile neighbour recently negotiated with World Liberty Financial (WLF), a cryptocurrency venture in which the president’s family has 60% stake. The deal was signed between WLF and the hastily-launched Pakistan Crypto Council, which early last month appointed as its adviser Changzpeng Zhao (CZ) — founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance — with the ambitious objective of making Islamabad South Asia’s crypto capital. Though the Crypto Council was barely a month old, WLF sent...
  • Spain busts secret Chinese and Arab shadow bank laundering millions in cash, crypto and Cuban cigars using the Hawala method

    05/14/2025 11:10:00 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 11 replies
    Euroweekly News ^ | 4 May 2025 | Marc Menendez-Roche
    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...
  • Crypto chief daughter's kidnap horror: Moment armed thugs try to force woman and toddler into van (Paris, France)

    05/13/2025 5:01:34 PM PDT · by lowbridge · 16 replies
    Daily Mail ^ | May 13, 2025 | KUMAIL JAFFER
    Flailing and struggling amid a brutal assault, this is the moment the daughter of a major cryptocurrency company executive and her two-year-old child were the victims of a violent attempted kidnapping in Paris. The 34-year-old was walking down Rue Pache in the capital yesterday morning when three armed men approached her. The group tried to force her and her toddler into a white van after hitting the child's father, who tried to intervene. Footage filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window also shows the woman - believed to be the daughter of a top crypto exec - grab a...
  • Token2049: Eric Trump believes the modern financial system is ‘broken’ and crypto will take over

    05/01/2025 4:30:45 PM PDT · by EnderWiggin1970 · 17 replies
    Coinmarketcap ^ | 5/1/25 | crypto.news
    Eric Trump talks to World Liberty Financial’s Zach Witkoff and Tron creator Justin Sun about how the institutional banks will be left ‘in the dust’ if they fail to embrace crypto. On May 1 during Token2049’s fireside chat session, Eric Trump opened up about how he and his family were “canceled” by the modern financial system, which led him to discover the world of cryptocurrency. “Modern finance is absolutely broken. And so when the banks came after our family, I’ll never forget it, we became the most canceled people in the world all because we’re associated with politics in the...
  • 2025 FORMULA 1 CRYPTO.COM MIAMI GRAND PRIX Live Thread

    05/01/2025 12:32:32 AM PDT · by Chode · 39 replies
    5/1/2025 | chode
    Miami International Autodrome First Grand Prix2022 Number of Laps57 Circuit Length5.412 kmRace Distance308.326 kmLap Record1:29.708Max Verstappen (2023)Track
  • $320m crypto heist suspect: How a Choa Chu Kang student went from gaming to a life of luxury

    03/18/2025 12:18:58 AM PDT · by nickcarraway · 11 replies
    AsiaOne ^ | March 15, 2025 | Andrew Wong
    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...
  • ‘Hawk Tuah Girl’ Haliey Welch Takes Victory Lap After SEC Investigation Into Crypto Scam

    03/28/2025 12:12:25 PM PDT · by RomanSoldier19 · 13 replies
    brobible.com ^ | March 28, 2025 3:01 pm | by Connor Toole
    Nothing sums up the spirit of our current times like Haliey Welch—a.k.a. Hawk Tuah Girl—becoming an overnight celebrity only to see her rapid rise lead to a meteoric downfall after she ended up at the center of a cryptocurrency scam.
  • Singaporean charged with $306m crypto heist blows $665k a night in clubs; gives Birkin bags to women

    03/10/2025 4:39:28 PM PDT · by nickcarraway · 9 replies
    AsiaOne ^ | March 09, 2025
    Singaporean Malone Lam – arrested and charged over one of the biggest crypto heist in the US – splurged up to US$500,000 (S$665,000) a night at clubs and was seen giving Hermes Birkin bags to models and influencers in his lavish outings. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) said the 20-year-old and co-accused, American Jeandiel Serrano, 21, were arrested in September 2024 and charged with “conspiracy to steal and launder over US$230 million in cryptocurrency from a victim in Washington, DC”. At today’s prices, the 4,100 stolen Bitcoin are worth more than US$450 million. In his latest court hearing last...
  • Trump creates a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve one day ahead of White House crypto summit

    03/06/2025 8:30:04 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 11 replies
    CNN via MSN ^ | 03/06/2025 | Ramishah Maruf and Allison Morrow, CNN
    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...
  • Crypto Theft Hits $2.2 Billion as Hackers Target Digital Wallets

    03/04/2025 11:17:19 AM PST · by nickcarraway · 9 replies
    Tico Times ^ | March 2, 2025
    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...
  • A Crypto Reserve Fund is a bad idea

    03/04/2025 5:53:51 AM PST · by SeekAndFind · 31 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 03/03/25 | Terry Johnson
    I own a small amount of crypto assets in my portfolio, so I am not against this asset class per se. I do object to the federal government starting their own reserve fund. Crypto is a relatively new asset and we are still in the beginning stages of exploring how it works as an asset for investing. We have already determined that it does not work as a currency in the U.S. The primary reason is that you must declare capital gains or losses with each transaction. The government should not pick winners and losers. Right now, the Trump administration...
  • BREAKING: President Trump just announced the creation of a U.S. Crypto Reserve.

    03/02/2025 11:33:38 AM PST · by Macho MAGA Man · 82 replies
    Benny Johnson on Twitter X ^ | March 2, 2025 | Benny Johnson
    Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson BREAKING: President Trump just announced the creation of a U.S. Crypto Reserve.
  • Trump slated to host Crypto Summit at White House

    03/01/2025 4:47:47 AM PST · by Strict9 · 10 replies
    Fox Business ^ | 3-1-25 | Landon Mion
    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...
  • Argentina's Milei faces credibility crisis over crypto scam

    02/21/2025 10:39:36 AM PST · by Miami Rebel · 14 replies
    Deutsche Welle ^ | Deutsche Welle | Tobias Käufer
    The political rise of economist Javier Milei to the presidency was largely driven by Argentinians' hope that he could revive the debt-laden country's economic fortunes. But now the libertarian's key credentials as an economic expert have suffered a massive blow as lawyers have filed a fraud lawsuit against him in an Argentine court. What's come to be known as the "cryptogate" scandal is gripping Argentina, with the rapid rise and collapse of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency at the center of controversy. Investors — most of them reportedly from Argentina and the United States — had poured the equivalent of $100 million...
  • Argentina’s opposition threatens impeachment trial after Milei touts crypto coin [looks like Milei screwed up]

    02/16/2025 3:55:06 PM PST · by Eccl 10:2 · 35 replies
    Reuters ^ | 2/16/25 | Reuters
    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.
  • Snoop Dogg loses half a million social media followers after performing at Trump crypto ball

    01/28/2025 1:25:16 PM PST · by nickcarraway · 44 replies
    New York Post ^ | 1/27 | Ariel Zilber
    Famed rapper Snoop Dogg lost more than 500,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 20,000 on X after his appearance at the Crypto Ball, a celebratory event tied to Donald Trump’s inauguration. The “Gin and Juice” singer’s Instagram dropped by 571,800 and 17,177 on X as fans accused Snoop of hypocrisy due to his past criticism of Trump. Snoop Dogg, who boasted 88.1 million followers on Instagram as of Monday, isn’t the only A-list celebrity to have followers abandon him in droves over perceived support for the Republican president. Kim Kardashian, the reality television star and entrepreneur, lost nearly 150,000 social...
  • Trump’s $TRUMP Meme Coin Soars to $30 Billion in 24 Hours, Shaking Up Crypto World

    01/18/2025 7:47:53 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 22 replies
    Townhall ^ | 01/18/2025 | Sarah Arnold
    In a move celebrating President-elect Donald Trump’s second presidency, one that blends business with the digital age, he has minted a staggering $31 billion by launching his official $TRUMP crypto meme coin. Capitalizing on cryptocurrency's explosive growth and meme coins' popularity, Trump’s latest venture has already attracted a massive following, making nearly $30 billion in just 24 hours. The $TRUMP coin not only marks Trump’s entry into the world of blockchain and crypto assets but also leverages his brand’s influence, tapping into both his loyal fanbase and the growing interest in alternative digital investments. A report from Axios pointed out...
  • Snoop Dogg criticised for playing Donald Trump’s Crypto Ball: “A bridge too far”

    01/18/2025 11:41:27 AM PST · by MinorityRepublican · 12 replies
    NME ^ | 18th January 2025 | Max Pilley
    Snoop Dogg has come under fire for performing at Donald Trump’s Crypto Ball just days ahead of the President Elect’s inauguration. The event took place on Friday (January 17) at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington D.C., with a VIP reception hosted by Trump’s crypto czar David Sacks. Among the performers on the night was Snoop, despite having been somewhat vocal in his opposition to the Republican in the past. His appearance has prompted several fans to criticise him online, with some saying that it was “a bridge too far”.