Coindesk

A key player behind the Libra token bragged about buying access to Argentine President Javier Milei's inner circle months before the memecoin's scandalous launch and crash.In text messages reviewed by CoinDesk, Hayden Davis, CEO of Kelsier Ventures, claimed he could "control" Milei because of payments he had been making to Karina Milei, a powerful figure in Milei's government, not to mention the president's sister."I control that n****," Davis claimed in text messages from mid-December, adding, "I send $$ to his sister and he signs whatever I say and does what I want."Karina Milei's office did not respond to a request for comment. Davis did not respond to multiple requests for comment.It was unclear if any money was exchanged between Davis...

The desultory price action in crypto continued on Tuesday, helping to drag bitcoin (BTC) closer to its lowest level in several months.In early afternoon trading hours, bitcoin was trading at $93,600, lower by 2% over the past 24 hours and off 10% over the past week.The broader crypto market as defined by the CoinDesk 20 Index was down 4% over the past 24 hours. Hitting that index was a 16% decline in solana (SOL), which is feeling the pain as the memecoin market may finally have reached peak grift and/or outright criminality over the weekend with the rugpull involving Argentine President Javier Millei. Solana is now down 35% over the past month and has given back all of its post-Trump...

Creditors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX with claims below $50,000 have started receiving their payouts, which include 9% annual interest accrued since November 2022.Multiple users on the FTX subreddit have reported receiving funds on accounts at crypto exchange Kraken with the added interest on top. Creditors are scheduled to receive roughly 119% of their adjudicated claim value, according to the bankruptcy plan.Arkham Intelligence also pointing to FTX’s wallet outflows as evidence of the payments, which it says are expected to total around $1.2 billion.Creditors with claims exceeding the $50,000 threshold are set to begin receiving their payments in the second quarter, with around $16 billion set to be distributed in total.The funds are being distributed in U.S. dollars through...

Blockaid, a cybersecurity firm specializing in blockchain security, said it raised $50 million in a Series B funding round to help expand research, engineering and product development.Ribbit Capital led the round, with backing from GV and existing investors including Variant and Cyberstarts, the company said. The funding comes as demand for blockchain security rises, with major financial institutions and fintech firms expanding their on-chain operations.Blockaid, which started operations in 2023 and raised $27 million in a Series A round, provides real-time threat detection for blockchain transactions. The company integrates directly with wallets and decentralized applications (dapps) to secure users from malicious actors. Last year, the platform scanned more than 2.4 billion transactions and blocked 71 million attacks."While the blockchain itself...

Traditional finance firms that have adopted crypto are moving past the experimentation phase and are actively working on real-world solutions, Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan, told CoinDesk.“Many of us in the industry are moving beyond experimentation; it’s actually real solutions,” he said, noting that Mastercard has already enabled stablecoin payments for financial institutions. Those institutions can choose to settle transactions using stablecoins, reflecting a broader trend in crypto adoption.Last week, the payments giant announced a partnership with crypto compliance firm Notabene, which will integrate Mastercard’s Crypto Credential into its SafeTransact platform to make digital asset transactions more secure and user-friendly.The Crypto Credential system continues to be a focus of Mastercard’s efforts to make crypto more mainstream. It...