Coindesk

WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump assured the crypto sector that it's on new ground in a first-ever summit at the White House on Friday, illustrating what the industry suspected: It's got friends at every level in Washington."I know that many of you have been fighting for years for this, and it's an honor to be with you at the White House," Trump said as the White House meeting got underway.In his brief statement, Trump said he would end his predecessor's “war on crypto,” praised lawmakers' legislative efforts and discussed his new Bitcoin reserve.“Regulators strong armed banks. I mean, they really did – They strong armed banks into closing the accounts of crypto businesses and entrepreneurs, effectively blocking...

Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange popular with ransomware gangs and darknet markets, has been taken down in an international law enforcement operation, according to a Friday announcement from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).On Thursday, a coalition of law enforcement agencies from the U.S., Germany and Finland seized Garantex’s domains and servers, and froze nearly $28 million in crypto tied to the exchange with the help of stablecoin issuer Tether.The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctioned Garantex in 2022, accusing the exchange of knowingly facilitating money laundering for ransomware actors, including Conti and Black Basta, and darknet markets like Hydra, which, before its 2022 shut down, was once the largest darknet market in the world.The sanctions had...

Cardano's ADA, XRP and Solana's SOL slid on Friday after a White House official backpedaled on President Trump's recent announcement that he would sign an executive order instructing the Presidential Working Group to move forward with the creation of strategic crypto reserve comprised of ADA, XRP, SOL, bitcoin and ether."I think the president just gave five examples of cryptocurrencies in his post. Those five have to be the largest by market cap," the senior White House official said in a call with reporters ahead of Friday's White House Crypto Summit. "I think people are reading into that a little bit too much. The bottom line is, I think that what we've announced here is consistent with what the president has...

Bitcoin (BTC) staking layer Core has teamed up with Singapore-based custodian Cobo to expand its institutional reach into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.Core, issuer of the liquid-staking token lstBTC, will enable Cobo's institutional clients to earn a return on BTC holdings while maintaining full control over their assets, according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk on Friday.Numerous projects are now offering BTC holders a means of earning yield, potentially unlocking untold liquidity into the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry. They also provide alternative revenue sources to miners, which can help to offset declining Bitcoin block subsidies.Core's staking protocol has secured over 6,200 BTC ($548 million) with its blockchain secured by around 76% of Bitcoin's hashrate, according to Friday's announcement.“Our integration with...

President Donald Trump's order to establish a bitcoin (BTC) reserve is meant to set up the original cryptocurrency as a U.S. reserve asset that deserves special treatment apart from other crypto assets, according to a senior White House official.The order's additional crypto stockpile of other assets will only gather those obtained by the U.S. government in seizures, the official said on Friday, hours before an afternoon crypto summit at the White House. The bitcoin reserve, which the official said will start with an estimated 200,000 bitcoin currently in government hands, could get active investment in the future, if senior administration officials can find ways to put new money in without leaning on taxpayer funds.Meanwhile, the federal government will embark on...