Coindesk

The IRS lost two key directors working on crypto initiatives, Seth Wilks and Raj Mukherjee, on Friday after they accepted deferred resignation offers directed by the Department of Government Efficiency.Wilks and Mukherjee, who both went to the IRS from the crypto industry, are technically still employees with the IRS for the next few months but they are on paid administrative leave as of Friday afternoon, two people familiar with the situation told CoinDesk. President Donald Trump's administration, through DOGE, offered deferred resignations to a wide array of federal employees earlier this year.Wilks, who was previously a vice president at TaxBit, and Mukherjee, who was previously ConsenSys and Binance.US' head of tax, both joined the IRS Digital Asset Initiative in February...

In February, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) began soliciting public input pertaining to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — a move suggesting reform at the agency is imminent.Since then, the SEC, in line with President Trump, has taken a far less adversarial stance towards the cryptocurrency industry, as evidenced by the appointment of crypto-friendly personnel and the abandonment of numerous lawsuits and investigations into crypto companies. But DOGE has the potential to implement further change, and interest in the SEC signals growing pressure towards regulators to reassess their approach to digital assets.In response to the request for public input, Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase — one of the companies no longer facing a lawsuit from...

This week, bitcoin climbed steadily to reach nearly $100K, amid hopes for a China-U.S. trade and better macroeconomic conditions ahead.Institutions like Mastercard and BlackRock made important digital asset announcements.An historic stablecoin bill neared completion in the U.S. Congress. (A former prime-mover in the House said to expect a “wicked hot summer” of legislation.)And the Trump Family continued to dominate the crypto news cycle, raising serious conflict-of-interest questions.At CoinDesk, however, the biggest story concerned Movement, a once-hot startup that now seems deeply troubled.Deputy managing editor Sam Kessler published an eye-opening scoop showing that Movement Labs may have been misled into signing a market-making agreement that granted a middleman control over 66 million MOVE tokens. That deal was said to have triggered...

Huione Group, the Cambodia-based conglomerate that the U.S. Treasury Department wants to cut out of the U.S. financial system, received $98 billion worth of crypto since 2014 through illicit schemes like money laundering, pig butchering and online scams, according to blockchain security firm Elliptic.The company, which has links to the Asian country's ruling Hun family, runs a Telegram-based marketplace where users can purchase personal data, money laundering services and even electric shackles intended for use on human beings.“Huione Group has come under intense scrutiny this week, with the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) identifying the Cambodia-based conglomerate as an entity primary money laundering concern," Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson told CoinDesk.In January, the company introduced its own stablecoin...

Wall Street analysts are standing firmly behind Strategy’s (MSTR) aggressive escalation of its bitcoin (BTC) acquisition strategy after the company unveiled plans to double its capital-raising ambitions."While the number of companies that have sought to replicate Strategy’s bitcoin acquisition strategy has continued to grow rapidly … MSTR yesterday issued a reminder of the extent of its first-mover advantage and how its ability to accelerate its accumulation of bitcoin has continued to increase as its platform has scaled," wrote Benchmark's Mark Palmer, reiterating his buy rating and $650 price target.Though MSTR trades at more than double the value of its bitcoin holdings, Palmer says that level is "attractive" thanks to Executive Chairman Michael Saylor and team's "demonstrated ability to create shareholder...