Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, made an out-of-court statement claiming innocence as his criminal trial began in New York. In a May 6 X post after court proceedings had likely ended for the day, Karony said he was innocent and “did not commit fraud” in response to media coverage of his trial. The former CEO, as well as SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and former chief technology officer Thomas Smith, were charged in 2023 for having allegedly “diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token. According to reporting from the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) on May 6, Karony implied that Nagy, who reportedly fled to Russia after authorities filed charges, was responsible for some of the alleged fraud at SafeMoon. On the first day of the trial, after jury selection, Smith reportedly appeared as a witness for the prosecution with a SafeMoon victim. The trial, expected to run until May 26, has arguably received less media attention and scrutiny than other crypto cases, such as the 2023 trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and the sentencing of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Karony pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024. Related: What do crypto users want to happen to Alex Mashinsky? Many high-profile individuals from the crypto industry who faced criminal charges did not publicly comment on social media until the conclusion of their cases, likely on the advice of counsel. Such statements may be used at trial. Trump's interim appointee moves in without Senate confirmation Karony’s case, first filed in November 2023, came as Donald Trump appointee Joseph Nocella assumed the role of interim US Attorney for the court district. EDNY’s courts have previously handled cases involving allegations of crypto fraud, but it’s unclear whether politics will play a role moving forward, given Trump’s alignment with the crypto industry. In the neighboring US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Alex Mashinsky is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8. The former Celsius CEO pleaded guilty to two felony charges in December 2024. Prosecutors have asked a judge to impose a 20-year sentence. Magazine: Bitcoiner Adam Back on Blockstream conspiracy theories and Satoshi question

Speaking at a hearing, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent toed the party line in suggesting support for two crypto-related bills moving through Congress. Bessent addressed lawmakers at a May 7 hearing of the House Financial Services Committee, saying that the United States should be the “premier destination for digital assets” in response to a question about American dominance over China in crypto-related innovation. The Treasury Secretary added that “good market structure” and “stablecoin legislation” could help ensure this outcome. US Treasury Secretary speaking at a May 7 hearing. Source: Scott Bessent Bessent’s remarks echoed those of other Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump, who initially claimed he wanted to make the US the “crypto capital of the world” during his 2024 campaign. The Treasury Secretary was likely referring to the draft of a digital asset market structure bill released by House Republicans on May 6 and the GENIUS bill to regulate stablecoins, expected to be taken up for a vote in the Senate on May 8. The Treasury Secretary, a Trump nominee, has stood by the president for significant announcements in crypto-aligned policy, including an executive order to establish a sovereign wealth fund and as a member of a working group to explore federal regulations for stablecoins and a national crypto stockpile. He suggested during a confirmation hearing that he would oppose the creation of any US-issued central bank digital currency while in office. Related: Bitcoin ‘Realized Cap’ hits $890B as BTC traders focus on recapturing $100K Democrats push back on crypto bills amid memecoin dinner controversy Even before announcing that he intended to hold an exclusive dinner and VIP tour for some of his top memecoin holders, Trump faced scrutiny from many lawmakers over allegations of conflicts of interest surrounding his crypto ventures. However, the dinner announcement seemed to galvanize some Democrats against any crypto-related legislation. Representative Maxine Waters, ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, led a walkout of a hearing addressing the Republican-drafted crypto market structure bill on May 6, citing the need to explore “Trump’s crypto corruption.” A group of nine Democrats in the Senate likewise said they will not support the GENIUS stablecoin bill in its current form, suggesting stronger Anti-Money Laundering, foreign issuer, and national security safeguards. It’s unclear at the time of publication whether Republicans, who control both chambers, will still have the votes to pass either bill. Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

PANews reported on May 8 that the OKX market showed that BTC had just fallen below $96,000 and is now trading at $95,990.00 per coin, down 0.98% on the day.

Strive Asset Management, founded by entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, has revealed plans to transition into a Bitcoin treasury company. According to a May 7 announcement, Strive is going public through a reverse merger and plans to use the combined company’s stock to accumulate Bitcoin (BTC). The deal will see Strive merging with Asset Entities — a social media marketing company listed on the Nasdaq. The combined entity will operate under the Strive brand and use its access to the public equity markets to finance Bitcoin purchases, the company said. Once the deal closes, Strive plans to issue approximately $1 billion in equity and debt and use the proceeds to accumulate BTC. The asset manager “intends to use all available mechanisms to build a Bitcoin war chest […] and build a long-term investment approach designed to outperform Bitcoin,” it said. Strive plans to allow “Bitcoin holders to contribute Bitcoin in exchange for public stock through a structure that is intended to be tax-free,” it said. As of May 7, the company manages approximately $2 billion in net assets across a variety of funds. In December, Strive filed to list an exchange-traded fund (ETF) investing in convertible bonds issued by MicroStrategy and other corporate Bitcoin buyers. Related: Trump-linked Strive files for ‘Bitcoin Bond’ ETF Corporate Bitcoin treasuries are increasingly popular. Source: Bitcointreasuries.netCorporate Bitcoin treasuries Corporate Bitcoin treasuries have become popular since the approval of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on Wall Street. Companies pioneering the Bitcoin buyer approach, such as Strategy have seen their share prices surge by 350% in 2024. Analysts say adding Bitcoin to corporate treasuries can “potentially be a valuable hedge against growing fiscal deficits, currency debasement, and geopolitical risks,” asset manager Fidelity Digital Assets said in a 2024 report. Corporate Bitcoin treasuries collectively hold roughly $74 billion worth of BTC as of May 7, according to Bitcointreasuries.net. Ramaswamy founded Strive in 2022. Source: StriveTrump connection Ramaswamy, an outspoken ally of President-elect Donald Trump, founded Strive in 2022. Its stated goal is to help investors “harness the power of capitalism,” according to Strive’s website. In 2023, Ramaswamy — who largely earned his $1 billion net worth from biotechnology startup Roivant Sciences — campaigned against Trump in the Republican presidential primary. He later endorsed the president-elect. Magazine: Bitcoin’s $100K push wakes taxman, Vitalik visits real Moo Deng: Asia Express

According to PANews on May 8, the OKX market showed that ETH had just fallen below $1,800 and is now trading at $1,798.48 per coin, down 1.06% on the day.

At least some of the top holders of Donald Trump’s memecoin who apply to attend a private dinner with the president could be based outside the United States. According to a May 7 Bloomberg report based on an analysis of the top TRUMP tokenholders, 19 of the top 25 wallets on the leaderboard used foreign exchanges that exclude US-based customers, suggesting either foreign nationals or Americans living abroad. In addition, more than half of the top 220 holders — the group eligible to apply for a dinner with the president — also used exchanges in other countries. Top 10 TRUMP memecoin holders as of May. 7. Source: Trump meme As of May 7, the identities of the top tokenholders and those who might choose to apply for the May 22 Trump dinner and “special VIP tour” were unknown. However, the project stated that anyone who applied could not bring guests, had to pass a background check, and “can not be from a [Know Your Customer] watchlist country.” The implications of having dozens or hundreds of memecoin holders potentially tied to foreign governments and interest groups have raised ethics concerns from some US lawmakers, claiming that Trump was engaging in “pay-to-play” corruption. At least one senator has called for the president’s impeachment, saying Trump was “selling access for what are effectively payments directly to him.” Memecoin concerns are slowing crypto legislation Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives and Senate have already been pushing back against considering any crypto-related legislation until Republicans address concerns around “Trump’s crypto corruption.” The Senate is expected to vote on a bill regulating stablecoins on May 8, and House Republicans recently introduced a discussion draft of a digital asset market structure bill. Related: Trump-backed USD1 is now the seventh-largest stablecoin worldwide Then-president-elect Trump launched the memecoin on Jan. 17 — three days before taking office — followed by the first lady introducing her own token. Two companies connected to Trump control roughly 80% of the memecoin’s supply. The launch of the memecoin and its potential influence over the president and his agenda has already prompted some companies to get on board. On April 30, a trucking logistics management company announced a $20 million investment in the TRUMP token, suggesting influencing Trump’s trade war between the US and Mexico, where the firm conducts much of its business. Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

PANews reported on May 8 that according to CoinDesk, the situation is grim on the eve of Coinbase (COIN) releasing its first quarter report. Four Wall Street analysts expect its performance to be lower than expected, as the sluggish retail trading may hit high-profit business lines. The company will announce its results after the market close on Thursday. According to FactSet data, analysts expect its earnings per share to fall from $2.26 in the fourth quarter of last year to $1.93, revenue to fall from $2.27 billion to $2.1 billion, and trading volume to fall to about $403.8 billion, down from $439 billion in the fourth quarter of last year. JPMorgan Chase lowered its earnings per share forecast to $1.59, although it is expected to reach $2.39 after considering asset losses, but the market is still worried. Barclays and Compass Point are more pessimistic. Barclays has significantly lowered its revenue and EBITDA forecasts, and expects retail trading volume to be far lower than expected; Compass Point downgraded Coinbase's stock rating to "sell". However, the stablecoin USDC's market value increased by 42%, which greatly increased Coinbase's related revenue. Barclays estimated that the revenue from USDC in the first quarter reached $304 million. Oppenheimer lowered its trading volume forecast, but pointed out that Coinbase's share of the US spot trading market increased. Analysts are worried about long-term competitive pressures, and decentralized exchanges are attracting retail users. Looking ahead, a short-term rebound in trading volume may be difficult to achieve.

PANews reported on May 7 that crypto detective ZachXBT published a post saying that just last week, more than $45 million was stolen from Coinbase users through social engineering scams. In the past few months, it has reported that the funds stolen from Coinbase users through similar social engineering scams have reached nine figures. Interestingly, other major exchanges have not had the same problem.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to CoinDesk, the latest SEC internal documents disclosed by Coinbase show that during the prosecution of the crypto exchange KuCoin in 2023, the New York Attorney General's Office asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to formally identify Ethereum as a security. Shamiso Maswoswe, director of the New York State Investor Protection Bureau, explicitly requested the SEC to submit a friend of the court brief in an email to support this position, saying that "although this is not a decisive factor in the case, the court's determination that ETH is a security will be more conducive to investor protection." The SEC ultimately did not respond to the New York prosecutor's request and maintained an ambiguous position on the attributes of ETH. The documents show that the SEC tended to identify ETH as a commodity in the early days, but its attitude wavered after Ethereum switched to the PoS mechanism. It is reported that New York State has a special financial regulatory system, and its Department of Financial Services has jurisdiction over both securities and commodity transactions. With the Trump administration appointing crypto-friendly Paul Atkins to head the SEC, the tension in US crypto regulation has eased. The SEC has recently issued statements to clarify that some digital assets do not fall into the category of securities. However, this exposed document once again highlights the fundamental differences between US federal and state regulators on the qualitative issue of cryptocurrencies.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to CoinDesk, Pepo, an important representative of Uniswap DAO, announced his withdrawal from governance on Monday. The anonymous representative, who holds 455,000 UNI tokens (worth about $3 million), complained on social media that the non-profit Uniswap Foundation has bypassed community governance and monopolized decision-making power. This conflict exposed the deep-seated contradictions in the governance of DeFi protocols. Although Devin Walsh, executive director of the Uniswap Foundation, emphasized "attaching importance to representative feedback", Pepo pointed out that the organization prefers closed operations rather than open collaboration. In March of this year, DAO approved a $165 million grant to the foundation for ecological development, but some representatives questioned the lack of transparency in the use of funds.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to Whale Alert monitoring, 5 minutes ago, Tether Treasury minted 1 billion new USDT on the Tron network.

PANews reported on May 7 that Coinglass data showed that in the past 24 hours, the cryptocurrency market had a total contract liquidation of $233 million, of which $76.3271 million was for long orders and $157 million was for short orders. The total amount of BTC liquidation was $89.1654 million, and the total amount of ETH liquidation was $38.9569 million.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to DL News, the price of Arbitrum's governance token ARB, a Layer2 network of Ethereum, has plummeted by 71% in the past year, causing a sharp decline in the voting participation rate of its DAO. Faced with this dilemma, the Arbitrum community is considering lowering the minimum voting threshold required for proposals to pass from 5% to 4.5% to revitalize governance. This move stems from the increasingly serious crisis of governance participation. Data shows that Arbitrum's governance participation has fallen by 50% in the past year, while its token price has fallen by 87% from its historical high. Community representatives pointed out that when token holders suffer significant losses, the enthusiasm for participating in governance naturally decreases. This situation not only affects daily decision-making, but is also likely to result in the failure of high-quality proposals to pass. Some representatives support lowering the threshold as a stopgap measure, but the core problem is that the ecosystem lacks real value to retain coin holders.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to The Information, people familiar with the matter revealed that David Bailey, who advised Trump on cryptocurrency policy during his 2024 campaign, is raising $300 million to set up a publicly traded Bitcoin investment company. He follows a series of companies that have acquired cryptocurrencies in an attempt to replicate the success of Michael Saylor's strategy. Bailey plans to raise $200 million through private placement of new shares and $100 million through convertible bonds.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to Cointelegraph, Singapore's digital asset infrastructure service provider Safeheron recently launched an open source trusted execution environment (TEE) framework. The solution is based on Intel SGX SDK and is written in modern C++. It aims to enhance the security and privacy protection of Web3 fields such as DeFi, payment services and DAO. The framework allows customers to create secure and isolated "enclave" spaces through cloud services that support Intel SGX, preventing external attacks and even internal threats to hardware. Currently, privacy blockchains such as Oasis Network and Secret Network have adopted similar technologies. Safeheron CEO Wade Wang said that the open source decision stems from concerns that the industry's closed system hinders innovation.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to the official announcement, Binance Wallet launched the BNB Smart Chain Trading Competition on Binance Alpha. During the event, you can share a reward of $3.5 million by trading B2, AIOT, MYX and ZKJ in Binance Wallet (without private key) or through Binance Alpha. Event time: 23:00 on May 7, 2025 to 00:00 on May 22, 2025 (Eastern Time Zone 8). General rules: The ranking will be based on the total cumulative trading volume of BNB Smart Chain tokens on the Binance Alpha platform during the event, and eligible users will receive rewards according to the reward distribution and table in the announcement.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to Jinshi, Apple (AAPL.O) senior vice president Cue said that Apple is exploring adding artificial intelligence search functions to the browser.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to Jinshi, U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessant said that the demand for U.S. Treasury bonds from digital assets will be as high as 2 trillion U.S. dollars.

PANews reported on May 7 that according to Bitcoin News, the Arizona Senate approved the Bitcoin Reserve Bill SB 1373 and sent it to Governor Katie Hobbs for final decision. Earlier news, the governor of Arizona vetoed the state's strategic Bitcoin reserve bill SB 1025 .

PANews reported on May 7 that according to official news, Lantern Capital is an early-stage venture capital fund co-led by Gökhan Er (former managing director of IOSG Ventures) and Tomasz Stańczak (co-executive director of the Ethereum Foundation and founder of Nethermind). Through exclusive strategic cooperation with Nethermind, Lantern Capital's R&D team has reached 200 people, focusing on cutting-edge technology fields such as zero-knowledge proof (ZK), Ethereum Layer 2 (L2), security audits and underlying protocol engineering. The Nethermind team is Lantern Capital's legal general partner (GP) and the core technical support for the fund. Lantern Capital is committed to investing in forward-looking founders who view blockchain as the economic, verification, governance and identity infrastructure in the coming AI era. The fund focuses on investing in high-potential early-stage projects in the Ethereum ecosystem and other multi-chain compatible projects, strategically capturing investment opportunities in the early primary and secondary markets. Lantern Capital will provide entrepreneurs with the most powerful support from the initial stage to the mainnet expansion.