Category Archives: Cryptocurrencies

Democrats oppose Trump officials’ effort to include crypto in 401(k) plans

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Change backed by labor department would expose workers to greater financial risk, letter shared with Guardian says

Congressional Democrats are strongly opposing a US Department of Labor proposal that would allow 401(k) investments to include cryptocurrency, private credit and private equity assets, arguing the change will expose workers to riskier and more complex investments.

In a letter shared exclusively with the Guardian, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren and House education and workforce committee ranking member Bobby Scott of Virginia, argued the rule would expose an estimated $14.2tn of 401(k) retirement savings to volatile assets and would probably not withstand a challenge in court.

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Trump’s World Liberty Financial venture sues crypto entrepreneur for defamation

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Suit alleges that Hong Kong-based Justin Sun engaged in a campaign to ‘torch’ the company’s reputation

World Liberty Financial, the crypto venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, said on Monday it had filed a defamation lawsuit in Florida state court against the Hong Kong-based crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun, as a dispute escalates between the project and one of its most prominent backers.

World Liberty posted a copy of its lawsuit on X in which it accused Sun of launching a “public smear campaign”. It alleged that Sun had improperly transferred some of his WLFI tokens that come with voting and governance rights to crypto exchange Binance and, separately, that he had placed bets that WLFI would decline in market value, known as short selling. That was part of a coordinated effort to push the token’s market price down as public trading began in September, the lawsuit alleged.

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Watchdog weighs investigation into Farage’s undisclosed £5m gift

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Electoral Commission reviewing whether Reform UK leader should have declared billionaire’s gift before entering parliament

The UK elections watchdog is considering whether to investigate an undisclosed £5m gift received by Nigel Farage before he announced his candidacy at the last general election.

The Guardian revealed this week that the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne gave the Reform UK leader the money.

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Canada to create powerful financial crimes agency as US weakens its approach

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Cryptocurrency ATMs also face ban, after public inquiry found Canada lacked anti-money-laundering strategy

Canada is to establish a new and powerful law enforcement agency to investigate financial crime, in stark contrast to the US, where weakened federal investigators have struggled to pursue fraudsters and the White House has pardoned convicted money launderers.

A bill to create the Financial Crimes Agency (FCA) completed its first reading in parliament this week. The legislation was introduced by the governing Liberals and with their parliamentary majority, the party is likely to move it through both levels of government quickly.

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Exclusive: Nigel Farage was given undisclosed £5m by crypto billionaire in 2024

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Reform leader changed his mind about standing as MP after gift from Thai-based crypto tycoon Christopher Harborne

Nigel Farage was given £5m by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne shortly before announcing he would stand in the 2024 British general election, the Guardian can reveal.

Farage had stated he did not intend to stand as a prospective MP but U-turned in June 2024, within weeks of receiving the personal gift from the Thailand-based businessman.

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Billionaire sues digital currency venture co-founded by Trump and sons for illegal account freezing

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Justin Sun alleges World Liberty Financial installed tools to prevent sale of his tokens after they became tradeable

Billionaire crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun on Tuesday sued World Liberty Financial, the digital currency venture co-founded by Donald Trump and his sons, alleging that World Liberty illegally froze his holdings of tokens issued by the company.

Sun, the largest investor in World Liberty, alleged in the lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California, that the company secretly installed tools to prevent the sale of his tokens after they became tradeable in September 2025. The lawsuit also alleges that World Liberty threatened to “burn” – or permanently delete – his holdings, even while they were in Sun’s digital wallet.

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How a £2m bitcoin order made Nigel Farage the political face of UK crypto

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Promotion of ‘bitcoin treasury’ firm with Kwasi Kwarteng draws new attention to Reform leader’s relations with industry

A thumping electronic beat provides the soundtrack to the video as Nigel Farage appears in front of a bank of screens.

At first glance, it could be yet another of the Reform UK leader’s “second jobs” – whether promoting gold as a pension fallback or recording Cameo videos. And in a sense, it is: Farage is promoting a £2m cryptocurrency purchase by a company in which he has £215,000 invested, Stack BTC.

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Overseas political funding capped and crypto donations blocked in blow to Reform UK

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Legislation subject to MPs’ approval but will be backdated due to urgency of threat to UK democracy, says minister

Keir Starmer is set to embark on a fundamental overhaul of the political finance system, starting with an emergency ban on cryptocurrency donations and £100,000 cap on donations from Britons living abroad in a blow to Reform UK.

In a hugely significant move, the government said it would bring in the annual cap as well as a moratorium on crypto donations from Wednesday as part of its new elections legislation.

Requiring third-party campaigners to declare donations all year round, not just election periods, and allowing funding only from permissible donors.

More stringent checks on the source of funds from political donors, bringing it more into line with know-your-customer checks in the financial services industry.

Preventing donations from shell companies by ensuring funding is from post-tax profits rather than revenue.

Requiring foreign consultant lobbyists to join the official register, from which they are currently exempt because they do not charge VAT.

Banning foreign-funded political adverts outright.

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Labour’s donations crackdown is a blow to Reform UK – and a highly political move

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Reform’s ability to fundraise is hobbled in a move that draws attention to donations from an overseas billionaire

Reform UK are no doubt the biggest losers from the government’s emergency measures to overhaul political donations.

Labour MPs are absolutely delighted that No 10 is at last bringing in changes that will hobble Reform’s ability to raise money from its Thailand-based mega-donor, Christopher Harborne, at the same time as making the electoral system fairer in the eyes of the public.

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Cryptocurrency firms suffer heavy losses in Illinois primaries after spending big

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Cryptocurrency’s biggest Pac spent more than $10m for their candidates, only to be defeated by those who are anti-crypto

The cryptocurrency industry spent big and lost often in this week’s Illinois primaries.

As the industry prepares to make massive donations in the 2026 midterm elections to replicate its success in 2024, the Illinois losses mark an early setback for firms that are trying to establish themselves as power players in American politics.

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Key aide to Nigel Farage was frontman for Premier League billionaire’s betting syndicate, lawsuit claims

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Exclusive: George Cottrell ‘gave control’ of gambling accounts to syndicate headed by Tony Bloom, the owner of Brighton & Hove Albion FC

George Cottrell, a close associate of Nigel Farage and a key figure in Reform UK’s inner circle, acted as a front for a major gambling syndicate that was “given control” of his betting accounts, a high court document alleges.

Cottrell acted as a stalking horse for a syndicate involving one of the world’s most successful gamblers, Tony Bloom, it is claimed in the public documents, filed at the high court.

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Woman admits UK bitcoin fraud charges after ‘world’s largest’ crypto seizure

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Zhimin Qian pleads guilty after wallets with 61,000 bitcoins, currently worth over £5bn, seized from north London home

A woman has been convicted for her role in a multibillion-pound bitcoin fraud after what is thought to have been the world’s largest cryptocurrency seizure.

Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, 45, orchestrated a fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 that left 128,000 people out of pocket.

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Former aide to de facto leader of Georgia being held as ‘personal prisoner’, mother claims

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Marina Ramazashvili says son, Giorgi Bachiashvili, was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by billionaire politician

The mother of a jailed former aide to Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the de facto leader of Georgia of treating her son as his “personal prisoner” as she appealed to the west for help.

Marina Ramazashvili, a renowned ophthalmologist in Georgia, said Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has allegedly been beaten in his prison cell, was the victim of a “vendetta” waged by the billionaire politician.

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Trump-backed World Liberty proposes $1.5bn crypto holder, Bloomberg News reports

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Co-founded by president’s eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr, World Liberty has earned the family $500m since its launch

World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by Donald Trump and the US president’s family, is sounding out investors for a $1.5bn fundraising round meant to set up a public company that will hold its WLFI tokens, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

The structure of the deal is yet to be finalized, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, adding that large investors in the crypto and tech space had been approached for the venture.

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George Osborne says UK has been left behind in cryptocurrency boom

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Ex-chancellor criticises hesitant approach to crypto and warns country in danger of missing next surge in market

The UK has been left behind in the cryptocurrency boom and is in danger of missing a second wave of demand, according to the former chancellor George Osborne.

Osborne, who has an advisory role at the crypto exchange firm Coinbase, said the country already missed out on the first generation of crypto because the formerly sceptical US had embraced digital currencies under Donald Trump.

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‘The ultimate liberty’: how Nigel Farage became a cryptocurrency convert

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Reform leader aims to make London a ‘crypto powerhouse’ and has previously hailed an ‘economic insurgency’

As Liz Truss prepared to make a U-turn on her mini-budget in October 2022, Nigel Farage discussed the economic instability on his GB News show. But he was not broadcasting from the channel’s studios in Paddington. Instead, Farage was speaking from a bitcoin conference in Amsterdam.

“With inflation forecast to perhaps get up to 20%, with increasing distrust of fiat currencies, people are looking for alternatives … Are you ready for bitcoin?” he said in his opening remarks.

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Reform UK to accept donations via bitcoin, Nigel Farage says

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Party leader says he wants UK to be a ‘crypto powerhouse’ during speech at Las Vegas conference

Reform UK will accept donations through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, Nigel Farage has announced.

During an appearance at the Bitcoin Conference in Las Vegas, where he was introduced as a “UK presidential candidate”, Farage said: “As of now, provided you are an eligible UK donor … we are the first political party in Britain that can accept donations in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”

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Trump cabinet member’s links to El Salvador crypto firm under scrutiny

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Commerce chief Howard Lutnick’s firm backed controversial crypto giant Tether as Bukele ties deepened

Trump administration’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and his family have had extensive business interests linked to El Salvador, whose authoritarian leader Nayib Bukele has grown close to the White House and who has courted controversy by imprisoning people deported from the US in an immigration crackdown.

El Salvador also plays host to a booming cryptocurrency and new media industry, which has numerous ties to Donald Trump allies who are seeking to make money from various ventures which have sometimes drawn the attention of authorities or ethics watchdogs.

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‘Just wildly illegal’: top Democrats push to censure Trump’s plan to accept Qatar jet

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Four senators, including Cory Booker, say they will press for vote against president’s plan to take $400m gift from Qatar

Top Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in the Trump’s personal presidential library.

Four Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee said on Monday that they would press for a vote later this week. They said that elected officials, including the president, were not allowed to accept large gifts from foreign governments unless authorized to do so by Congress.

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French police investigate spate of cryptocurrency millionaire kidnappings

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Victims have had fingers chopped off by attackers in crimewave targeting entrepreneurs and their families

French police are investigating a series of kidnappings of investors linked to cryptocurrency after a 60-year-old man had a finger chopped off by attackers who demanded his crypto-millionaire son pay a ransom.

In the latest of several kidnappings of cryptocurrency figures in France and western Europe, the man, who owned a cryptocurrency marketing company with his son, was freed from a house south of Paris on Saturday night. He had been held for more than two days.

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