Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
3
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
On November 17, the tracking platform DappRadar announced it will shut down after seven years, calling the business “financially unsustainable in the current environment.”2 The rout has dragged down stock prices across crypto firms like Circle, Coinbase, and Gemini.a Shares of digital asset treasury companies — a big trend earlier this year, in which publicly traded firms with core businesses unrelated to crypto pivoted to amassing large crypto treasuries — have been sliding for even longer. MicroStrategy (now just “Strategy”) is down 50% since the summer. Nakamoto, the bitcoin treasury vehicle led by Trump ally David Bailey, has cratered more than 95% since its August merger with the healthcare company KindlyMD. It’s too soon to tell whether this slide is just the beginning of another crypto apocalypse, or if it’s just routine crypto volatility. Either way, I’ll be here to chronicle it — except for my scheduled hiatus beginning November 26. If history is any guide, that’s exactly when the market will choose chaos.
On November 17, the tracking platform DappRadar announced it will shut down after seven years, calling the business “financially unsustainable in the current environment.”2 The rout has dragged down stock prices across crypto firms like Circle, Coinbase, and Gemini.a Shares of digital asset treasury companies — a big trend earlier this year, in which publicly traded firms with core businesses unrelated to crypto pivoted to amassing large crypto treasuries — have been sliding for even longer. MicroStrategy (now just “Strategy”) is down 50% since the summer. Nakamoto, the bitcoin treasury vehicle led by Trump ally David Bailey, has cratered more than 95% since its August merger with the healthcare company KindlyMD. It’s too soon to tell whether this slide is just the beginning of another crypto apocalypse, or if it’s just routine crypto volatility. Either way, I’ll be here to chronicle it — except for my scheduled hiatus beginning November 26. If history is any guide, that’s exactly when the market will choose chaos.
On November 17, the tracking platform DappRadar announced it will shut down after seven years, calling the business “financially unsustainable in the current environment.”2 The rout has dragged down stock prices across crypto firms like Circle, Coinbase, and Gemini.a Shares of digital asset treasury companies — a big trend earlier this year, in which publicly traded firms with core businesses unrelated to crypto pivoted to amassing large crypto treasuries — have been sliding for even longer. MicroStrategy (now just “Strategy”) is down 50% since the summer. Nakamoto, the bitcoin treasury vehicle led by Trump ally David Bailey, has cratered more than 95% since its August merger with the healthcare company KindlyMD. It’s too soon to tell whether this slide is just the beginning of another crypto apocalypse, or if it’s just routine crypto volatility. Either way, I’ll be here to chronicle it — except for my scheduled hiatus beginning November 26. If history is any guide, that’s exactly when the market will choose chaos.
Bitcoin has fallen back below $100,000, wiping out much of the “Trump pump” gains over the past year. After a two-month slide, some fear this is the beginning of another bust in a market defined by its often catastrophic boom-and-bust cycles. With heavy leverage across crypto trading and misconduct that often stays hidden until falling prices apply pressure, collapses can be swift and brutal — as 2021–2022 illustrated — and some traders worry we’re due for a repeat. On November 3, the major defi protocol Balancer suffered a $110 million exploit, which also affected some protocols that reused Balancer code. Then, a $93 million collapse of the Stream Finance yield platform the following day led to $285 million (that we know of so far) in contagion across the crypto ecosystem, including to projects like Elixir’s deUSD algorithmic stablecoin.1 The aftershocks of these defi failures, combined with faltering crypto prices and extremely jittery macroeconomic conditions, are already leading to wider fallout.
Bitcoin has fallen back below $100,000, wiping out much of the “Trump pump” gains over the past year. After a two-month slide, some fear this is the beginning of another bust in a market defined by its often catastrophic boom-and-bust cycles. With heavy leverage across crypto trading and misconduct that often stays hidden until falling prices apply pressure, collapses can be swift and brutal — as 2021–2022 illustrated — and some traders worry we’re due for a repeat. On November 3, the major defi protocol Balancer suffered a $110 million exploit, which also affected some protocols that reused Balancer code. Then, a $93 million collapse of the Stream Finance yield platform the following day led to $285 million (that we know of so far) in contagion across the crypto ecosystem, including to projects like Elixir’s deUSD algorithmic stablecoin.1 The aftershocks of these defi failures, combined with faltering crypto prices and extremely jittery macroeconomic conditions, are already leading to wider fallout.
Bitcoin has fallen back below $100,000, wiping out much of the “Trump pump” gains over the past year. After a two-month slide, some fear this is the beginning of another bust in a market defined by its often catastrophic boom-and-bust cycles. With heavy leverage across crypto trading and misconduct that often stays hidden until falling prices apply pressure, collapses can be swift and brutal — as 2021–2022 illustrated — and some traders worry we’re due for a repeat. On November 3, the major defi protocol Balancer suffered a $110 million exploit, which also affected some protocols that reused Balancer code. Then, a $93 million collapse of the Stream Finance yield platform the following day led to $285 million (that we know of so far) in contagion across the crypto ecosystem, including to projects like Elixir’s deUSD algorithmic stablecoin.1 The aftershocks of these defi failures, combined with faltering crypto prices and extremely jittery macroeconomic conditions, are already leading to wider fallout.
2
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
The Trump Organization’s announcement came the same day that President Trump announced the US would sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, after the country’s leadership appealed to him personally. The move angered Israel, given the potential to shift the region’s military balance, and it stoked fears among US military intelligence officials that the UAE would share the technology with China. The sales will still need to be approved by Congress.5
The Trump Organization’s announcement came the same day that President Trump announced the US would sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, after the country’s leadership appealed to him personally. The move angered Israel, given the potential to shift the region’s military balance, and it stoked fears among US military intelligence officials that the UAE would share the technology with China. The sales will still need to be approved by Congress.5
The Trump Organization’s announcement came the same day that President Trump announced the US would sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, after the country’s leadership appealed to him personally. The move angered Israel, given the potential to shift the region’s military balance, and it stoked fears among US military intelligence officials that the UAE would share the technology with China. The sales will still need to be approved by Congress.5
The project is being developed with the Saudi company Dar Global, continuing the now-familiar pattern of lucrative Trump administration and family deals with Persian Gulf governments and companies. Congressional and public outcry over apparent corruption and ethics violations involving a $2 billion UAE investment in Binance denominated in the Trump family’s stablecoin (which would route tens of millions in interest on the reserves to the Trumps) [I83], a White House–brokered AI-chips deal with the UAE [I93], and another White House deal granting the UAE a 15% stake in TikTok [I94] evidently have not slowed Trump’s pursuit of similar arrangements.
The project is being developed with the Saudi company Dar Global, continuing the now-familiar pattern of lucrative Trump administration and family deals with Persian Gulf governments and companies. Congressional and public outcry over apparent corruption and ethics violations involving a $2 billion UAE investment in Binance denominated in the Trump family’s stablecoin (which would route tens of millions in interest on the reserves to the Trumps) [I83], a White House–brokered AI-chips deal with the UAE [I93], and another White House deal granting the UAE a 15% stake in TikTok [I94] evidently have not slowed Trump’s pursuit of similar arrangements.
The project is being developed with the Saudi company Dar Global, continuing the now-familiar pattern of lucrative Trump administration and family deals with Persian Gulf governments and companies. Congressional and public outcry over apparent corruption and ethics violations involving a $2 billion UAE investment in Binance denominated in the Trump family’s stablecoin (which would route tens of millions in interest on the reserves to the Trumps) [I83], a White House–brokered AI-chips deal with the UAE [I93], and another White House deal granting the UAE a 15% stake in TikTok [I94] evidently have not slowed Trump’s pursuit of similar arrangements.
Details of the tokenization scheme are scarce. The Trump Organization has not said whether buyers will receive any share of resort revenues, or indeed any benefits at all. But its statement that the project “tokenizes the development phase itself, offering investors the opportunity to participate in a high-growth, premium real estate project from inception” reads like a textbook securities offering under any pre‑Trump SEC. After all, the Howey test — the test to determine if an instrument qualifies as an investment contract under federal securities laws — involved a 1946 case in which a Florida company developed their orange farming operation by selling real-estate contracts to investors without agricultural knowledge or experience, with a promise that the company would farm the groves and generate profits on investors’ behalf. Image: A rendering of a teardrop-shaped platform floating on the sea, about 1/3 of which is an indoor hotel area, and the remainder of which is a pool and deck area.
Details of the tokenization scheme are scarce. The Trump Organization has not said whether buyers will receive any share of resort revenues, or indeed any benefits at all. But its statement that the project “tokenizes the development phase itself, offering investors the opportunity to participate in a high-growth, premium real estate project from inception” reads like a textbook securities offering under any pre‑Trump SEC. After all, the Howey test — the test to determine if an instrument qualifies as an investment contract under federal securities laws — involved a 1946 case in which a Florida company developed their orange farming operation by selling real-estate contracts to investors without agricultural knowledge or experience, with a promise that the company would farm the groves and generate profits on investors’ behalf. Image: A rendering of a teardrop-shaped platform floating on the sea, about 1/3 of which is an indoor hotel area, and the remainder of which is a pool and deck area.
Details of the tokenization scheme are scarce. The Trump Organization has not said whether buyers will receive any share of resort revenues, or indeed any benefits at all. But its statement that the project “tokenizes the development phase itself, offering investors the opportunity to participate in a high-growth, premium real estate project from inception” reads like a textbook securities offering under any pre‑Trump SEC. After all, the Howey test — the test to determine if an instrument qualifies as an investment contract under federal securities laws — involved a 1946 case in which a Florida company developed their orange farming operation by selling real-estate contracts to investors without agricultural knowledge or experience, with a promise that the company would farm the groves and generate profits on investors’ behalf. Image: A rendering of a teardrop-shaped platform floating on the sea, about 1/3 of which is an indoor hotel area, and the remainder of which is a pool and deck area.
Trump business interests Newest on President Trump’s rapidly expanding list of crypto ventures is a Trump-branded hotel and resort in the Maldives, which the Trump Organization says will be financed by “tokenizing” the project’s construction phase on a blockchain and selling the tokens to US retail investors.34 The Trump sons and some of their crypto business partners have lately been eagerly pitching the idea of new projects involving both real estate and blockchains [I94], which they present as an opportunity for retail investors who they claim have been unfairly excluded from high-risk real estate investments — rather than what it plainly is: an opportunity for Trump to start bilking everyday people as well as institutional lenders, contractors, and laborers.
Trump business interests Newest on President Trump’s rapidly expanding list of crypto ventures is a Trump-branded hotel and resort in the Maldives, which the Trump Organization says will be financed by “tokenizing” the project’s construction phase on a blockchain and selling the tokens to US retail investors.34 The Trump sons and some of their crypto business partners have lately been eagerly pitching the idea of new projects involving both real estate and blockchains [I94], which they present as an opportunity for retail investors who they claim have been unfairly excluded from high-risk real estate investments — rather than what it plainly is: an opportunity for Trump to start bilking everyday people as well as institutional lenders, contractors, and laborers.
Trump business interests Newest on President Trump’s rapidly expanding list of crypto ventures is a Trump-branded hotel and resort in the Maldives, which the Trump Organization says will be financed by “tokenizing” the project’s construction phase on a blockchain and selling the tokens to US retail investors.34 The Trump sons and some of their crypto business partners have lately been eagerly pitching the idea of new projects involving both real estate and blockchains [I94], which they present as an opportunity for retail investors who they claim have been unfairly excluded from high-risk real estate investments — rather than what it plainly is: an opportunity for Trump to start bilking everyday people as well as institutional lenders, contractors, and laborers.
4
quixote
@quixote@mastodon.nz  ·  activity timestamp 21 hours ago
1
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Screenshot: January 26, 2025 tweet by Roger Ver: “Mr. President, I am an American, and I need your help. Only you, with your commitment to justice, can save me @realDonald Trump”. Below is a video, paused on a frame with Ver staring off into the distance, with a waving American flag superimposed atop But simultaneously, the Justice Department has continued to aggressively prosecute Roman Storm, a developer of the Tornado Cash cryptocurrency mixing software who received a mixed verdict in his August trial [I90]. The agency recently pursued the maximum sentence against the developers of Samourai Wallet, another crypto mixing service [I96]. And now, rather than dropping the charges, prosecutors have asked for a new trial date to take another swing at convicting the MEV brothers, who face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
Despite its professed shift, the Trump-era DOJ has been erratic on crypto enforcement. In statements and in select cases — especially those involving wealthy, well-connected players — it has appeared lenient. It dropped an investigation into crypto prediction market platform Polymarket [I89]. It’s looking to settle a major tax evasion case against Roger Ver, a wealthy crypto investor who in January published a video plea to Trump for leniency, complete with waving flags, a dramatized enactment of Ver being arrested, and Ver insisting “I am an American, and I will die an American” (Ver renounced his US citizenship in 2014 in hopes of avoiding taxes on his crypto gains, though he now says it was to escape “lawfare” from the US government) [I57, 91, 95]. The department has also said it won’t prosecute developers who write crypto software “without ill-intent” even if they fail to register as money transmitters.13 And Trump himself rebuked the Biden-era DOJ by pardoning Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, framing relief for a man alleged to have deliberately evaded US regulations to profit from American customers as a stand against a “war on crypto”.
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
I originally wondered if the mistrial might give the prosecutors an easy excuse to drop the case. In addition to being highly technical and challenging to explain to a jury, there are genuine questions around whether the brothers were defrauding bot operators who in turn were making automated trades that often disadvantage humans they’re trading against or if they were simply out-trading those bots in a largely lawless ecosystem where it’s expected there will be winners and losers. But the original charges were brought in 2024, by a Biden-era Justice Department from which Trump’s DOJ has been eager to distance itself — particularly when it comes to crypto-related cases. An April 2025 memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche condemned the Biden-era DOJ’s approach to crypto, deeming it a “reckless strategy of regulation by prosecution, which was ill conceived and poorly executed”. In the memo, he outlined new DOJ priorities aligned with Trump’s directive to support the crypto industry, dismantled the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, and directed the Criminal Division’s Market Integrity and Major Frauds Unit to halt cryptocurrency enforcement [I81].
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
MEV bot brothers The prosecution of the two brothers who exploited MEV bots on Ethereum has ended in a mistrial. Jurors were subjected to a month-long, intensely technical crash course on Ethereum, maximal extractable value,b and the hordes of bots that execute automated trades on the network. Over three days of deliberations, jurors submitted eleven notes to the judge indicating that they were struggling to reach a verdict. In the final one, sent on the evening of Friday November 7, jurors wrote, “We held another vote. We are no closer to a unanimous decision. We are under stress. Yesterday some cried. Many have not slept. This is hardship.” The judge declared a mistrial, seeing no hope that the jury would reach a verdict the following Monday, and facing the risky possibility of having to proceed with only eleven jurors due to a scheduling conflict.c As crypto advocate Neeraj Agrawal wrote, “A group of every day Americans was forced to learn how Ethereum works and this was the result.”12 He’s right — sometimes that abyss stares back.
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Glyph
@glyph@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Tornado Cash The prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm has been controversial among crypto enthusiasts and privacy advocates [Tornado, Tornado 2]. Initiated under Biden, the Trump DOJ nevertheless took the case to trial, infuriated those who hoped Trump’s crypto pivot would protect those in the space without as much influence — not just his deep-pocketed benefactors. Prosecutors eked out a conviction on one charge while the jury deadlocked on the two more serious charges. Weeks later, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti told a crypto conference that “merely writing code, without ill-intent, is not a crime,” which some took as a signal the DOJ might retreat from the unpopular case. Instead, the agency filed a sprawling brief opposing Storm’s motion for acquittal [I94], urging the judge to uphold the one conviction, and insisting that a reasonable jury would have convicted him on the other two. Prosecutors haven’t yet said whether they’ll retry those charges, but the force of their filing suggests to me that they don’t intend to stand down.14
Tornado Cash The prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm has been controversial among crypto enthusiasts and privacy advocates [Tornado, Tornado 2]. Initiated under Biden, the Trump DOJ nevertheless took the case to trial, infuriated those who hoped Trump’s crypto pivot would protect those in the space without as much influence — not just his deep-pocketed benefactors. Prosecutors eked out a conviction on one charge while the jury deadlocked on the two more serious charges. Weeks later, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti told a crypto conference that “merely writing code, without ill-intent, is not a crime,” which some took as a signal the DOJ might retreat from the unpopular case. Instead, the agency filed a sprawling brief opposing Storm’s motion for acquittal [I94], urging the judge to uphold the one conviction, and insisting that a reasonable jury would have convicted him on the other two. Prosecutors haven’t yet said whether they’ll retry those charges, but the force of their filing suggests to me that they don’t intend to stand down.14
Tornado Cash The prosecution of Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm has been controversial among crypto enthusiasts and privacy advocates [Tornado, Tornado 2]. Initiated under Biden, the Trump DOJ nevertheless took the case to trial, infuriated those who hoped Trump’s crypto pivot would protect those in the space without as much influence — not just his deep-pocketed benefactors. Prosecutors eked out a conviction on one charge while the jury deadlocked on the two more serious charges. Weeks later, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti told a crypto conference that “merely writing code, without ill-intent, is not a crime,” which some took as a signal the DOJ might retreat from the unpopular case. Instead, the agency filed a sprawling brief opposing Storm’s motion for acquittal [I94], urging the judge to uphold the one conviction, and insisting that a reasonable jury would have convicted him on the other two. Prosecutors haven’t yet said whether they’ll retry those charges, but the force of their filing suggests to me that they don’t intend to stand down.14
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Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
In elections and political influence The Digital Chamber crypto advocacy group has announced a new project called the State Network, through which they hope to push for state- and local-level pro-crypto policies. While crypto political spending during the 2024 elections was heavily focused on congressional and presidential races, the State Network plans to work to influence much more local races. “We want every lawmaker from Congress down to your local school board to be pro crypto,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone.18 Someone may wish to break the news to him that school boards don’t write laws.
In elections and political influence The Digital Chamber crypto advocacy group has announced a new project called the State Network, through which they hope to push for state- and local-level pro-crypto policies. While crypto political spending during the 2024 elections was heavily focused on congressional and presidential races, the State Network plans to work to influence much more local races. “We want every lawmaker from Congress down to your local school board to be pro crypto,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone.18 Someone may wish to break the news to him that school boards don’t write laws.
In elections and political influence The Digital Chamber crypto advocacy group has announced a new project called the State Network, through which they hope to push for state- and local-level pro-crypto policies. While crypto political spending during the 2024 elections was heavily focused on congressional and presidential races, the State Network plans to work to influence much more local races. “We want every lawmaker from Congress down to your local school board to be pro crypto,” said Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone.18 Someone may wish to break the news to him that school boards don’t write laws.
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Ike
@ike@pkm.social  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Molly White
@molly0xfff@hachyderm.io  ·  activity timestamp yesterday
Republican crypto advocate John Deaton is taking another swing in Massachusetts, despite a near 20-point loss to Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024. Although a handful of crypto industry executives spoke supportively of Deaton or contributed to his campaign, the major crypto super PACs stuck to a back-the-winners strategy and steered clear of his longshot race. Now Deaton will challenge three-term Senator Ed Markey, and says he hopes this time around he’ll earn the backing of crypto’s big super PACs.19
Republican crypto advocate John Deaton is taking another swing in Massachusetts, despite a near 20-point loss to Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024. Although a handful of crypto industry executives spoke supportively of Deaton or contributed to his campaign, the major crypto super PACs stuck to a back-the-winners strategy and steered clear of his longshot race. Now Deaton will challenge three-term Senator Ed Markey, and says he hopes this time around he’ll earn the backing of crypto’s big super PACs.19
Republican crypto advocate John Deaton is taking another swing in Massachusetts, despite a near 20-point loss to Senator Elizabeth Warren in 2024. Although a handful of crypto industry executives spoke supportively of Deaton or contributed to his campaign, the major crypto super PACs stuck to a back-the-winners strategy and steered clear of his longshot race. Now Deaton will challenge three-term Senator Ed Markey, and says he hopes this time around he’ll earn the backing of crypto’s big super PACs.19
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