Coindesk

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...

Cryptocurrency markets are likely to remain under pressure in the short term owing to a lack of positive catalysts and skepticism about whether Congress will approve a U.S. strategic crypto reserve, JPMorgan (JPM) said in a research report Wednesday."Not only is there skepticism about congressional approval for such a strategic crypto reserve, but also the feasibility of including smaller tokens outside bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) given their high risk and volatility," analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote.On Thursday, President Donald Trump directed his administration to establish a Bitcoin Strategic Reserve to hold the assets that have been seized by the government. He also called for a stockpile of other crypto assets, without naming those that should be included despite...