Decentral Block Post

Democratic lawmakers in Washington are backing off support for crypto legislation amid heightened concerns over corruption, including the conduct of the Trump family’s World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

In March, the GENIUS Act, which would regulate stablecoins in the US, passed a critical committee reading with the support of several pro-crypto Democrats. Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Andy Kim and Angela Alsobrooks voted with Republicans, opposite lead Democrat and prominent crypto critic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The bill passed the committee only after a number of changes were made, including stricter requirements for stablecoin issuers and provisions for Anti-Money Laundering, countering terrorism financing and risk management procedures. 

Now, it seems that even those provisions are insufficient to quell Democratic concerns. Following some high-profile crypto deals that personally enrich President Donald Trump, Congressional Democrats are pulling their support.

Bipartisan efforts on stablecoin bills endangered

Of the five pro-crypto Democrats to pass the GENIUS Act in the Senate Banking Committee, four signed their names to a statement on May 3, saying that they do not feel comfortable with the direction stablecoin legislation is taking.

“The bill as it currently stands still has numerous issues that must be addressed, including adding stronger provisions on anti-money laundering, foreign issuers, national security, preserving the safety and soundness of our financial system, and accountability,” the announcement reads.

Key takeaways:

Bitcoin’s Coinbase premium index turned negative for the first time in 15 days, indicating defensive short-term sentiment among US investors.

Bitcoin CME futures gaps between support at $92,000-$92,500 and resistance at $96,400-$97,400 suggest a period of range-bound trading.

Bitcoin’s Coinbase premium index, which measures the gap between BTC price at Coinbase Pro and Binance exchange, turned negative after a 15-day positive stint, signaling potential bearish sentiment among US investors.

This drop coincides with Bitcoin (BTC) slipping below $94,000, and the premium’s decline suggests reduced buying pressure on Coinbase, which is viewed as a proxy for both institutional and retail demand.

While blockchain infrastructure may be ready for institutional use, many legal teams at big firms remain cautious about fully integrating the technology. 

At the Token2049 event in Dubai, DoubleZero Labs founder and former Solana head of strategy Austin Federa told Cointelegraph that today’s high-performance blockchains like Solana are technically capable of supporting large-scale institutional usage. However, lawyers need to catch up. 

“Most blockchains nowadays, especially things like Solana, are fast enough for institutions to use them,” Federa said. “It’s really more about the institutions and the institution’s lawyers getting comfortable with crypto.”

Federa added that institutional lawyers and compliance teams are still addressing regulatory concerns. The executive said this may slow adoption despite the growing regulatory clarity in key markets like the United States. 

Institutions are coming; they just move slow

According to Federa, technical infrastructure is no longer a primary barrier for large firms. Tools needed to support enterprise-scale activity on networks like Solana are already in place:

Investment bank Citi and Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) are teaming up to modernize traditional private markets through tokenization.

The initiative, revealed during the Point Zero Forum in Switzerland, will leverage SDX’s blockchain-based Central Securities Depositary (CSD) platform to tokenize, settle and safekeep assets, according to a May 6 announcement.

The platform, expected to go live by the third quarter of 2025, will make late-stage, pre-initial public offering (IPO) equities accessible to institutional and eligible investors globally.

The project offers issuers a compliant and scalable framework to manage liquidity, particularly for early investors and employees, while maintaining cap table control. For investors, it opens access to high-growth, venture-backed companies in a more efficient and transparent manner.

“We are excited to welcome Citi to the SDX platform and together deliver this landmark project in the tokenization of private shares,” said David Newns, head of SDX.

Decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) HydraDAO claims that its researchers were able to use a novel technique to repair severed spines in rats.

In a May 5 X post, decentralized science (DeSci) project HydraDAO said that one of its research projects resulted in “rats who had their spines fully transected” being able to walk again. More notably, recovery from surgery reportedly only took five days.

The post featured a video of partially shaved (presumably due to surgery) rats walking in what appeared to be a laboratory setting. The effort in question is the Dowell spinal fusogens project led by Michael Lebenstein-Gumovski, which raised 380,700 USDC (USDC) from donors. The dedicated HydraDAO page reads:

Related: Experts to gather in Miami to drive longevity research forward

More than smoke and mirrors?

Fusogens are chemicals capable of fusing cell membranes and have long been researched as a means to reconnect severed nerve fibers. One such chemical is polyethylene glycol (PEG), which was shown to promote membrane fusion and seal axonal membranes in other research.

Key takeaways:

Berkshire holds $347B in cash, enough to buy ~18% of Bitcoin’s supply.

Greg Abel has not signaled a shift from Warren Buffett’s anti-Bitcoin stance.

Berkshire already has indirect crypto exposure via Nu Holdings, Jefferies.

Warren Buffett announced at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting on May 3 that he will step down as CEO by the end of 2025, with Greg Abel taking over. This transition raises speculation about Berkshire’s financial capacity to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) under the new leadership.

Petr Kozyakov, CEO of crypto payments platform Mercuryo, told Cointelegraph that the future of finance may not be a winner-takes-all scenario but a blend of digital assets and fiat, each used where it makes the most sense. 

In a Cointelegraph interview, Kozyakov said that while crypto payments are seeing an increase in adoption and demand, the asset class won’t be fully replacing fiat money anytime soon. He said the two asset classes will coexist, with people choosing the more convenient payment option in different situations. 

“We don’t think crypto will replace fiat,” Kozyakov told Cointelegraph. “They will coexist, and people will turn to crypto when it’s the easier, more practical option, whether that’s for payroll, yield or money transfers.”

Crypto payroll gains momentum as payment options expand

Crypto as a salary payment option is no longer a novelty. Kozyakov told Cointelegraph that more companies are settling employee salaries with crypto assets. 

“That is a growing trend,” Kozyakov said. “I see a lot of businesses that are starting to settle with their full-time employees and with their gig employees all over the world, in crypto.”

Veteran US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) official Trish Turner was appointed to lead the agency’s digital assets division following the departure of two key crypto-focused executives.

Turner, who has spent over 20 years at the IRS and most recently served as a senior adviser within the Digital Assets Office, will now head the unit, according to a report from Bloomberg Tax citing a person familiar with the situation.

Her promotion marks a significant leadership transition at a time when US crypto tax enforcement is facing both internal and external pressures.

On May 5, Sulolit “Raj” Mukherjee and Seth Wilks, two private-sector experts brought in to lead the IRS’s crypto unit, exited after roughly a year in their roles.

Mukherjee served as compliance and implementation executive director, while Wilks oversaw strategy and development. Wilks announced his departure on LinkedIn, while Mukherjee confirmed his decision in a statement to Bloomberg Tax.

The CEO of crypto exchange OKX’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) division has called on the industry to prioritize real-world utility as interest in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) continues to grow.

In a Cointelegraph interview at the Token20249 event in Dubai, OKX MENA CEO Rifad Mahasneh warned that while tokenization is promising, projects must “clearly demonstrate” the benefits of tokenizing specific assets. 

“In some cases, we’re tokenizing things that don’t need tokenization, but in some cases, we’re tokenizing things that actually give you real, everyday value, right? And if you can see that everyday value, then that is a promising project,” Mahasneh told Cointelegraph.

He said hype can drive project growth in the Web3 space, but providing everyday value should be the priority. 

RWA tokenization gains traction in the UAE

Mahasneh’s comments come amid an increase in real-world asset tokenization projects in the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates.

Opinion by: Simon Cain, contributor at Bitcoin Policy UK

Most jurisdictions globally are researching, developing or implementing retail central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). If you see these as harmless move-with-the-times digital updates of old-fashioned paper money, look again. CBDCs potentially mean financial serfdom via a monetary panopticon where the authorities closely control every transaction. 

If you think this sounds paranoid, just consider the words of Augustin Carstens, head of the Bank for International Settlements — the central bank for the world’s central banks. Lamenting the authorities’ current inability to control cash transactions, he says that with a CBDC, a “central bank will have absolute control on the rules and regulations that will determine use... also we will have the technology to enforce that.. that makes a huge difference with respect to what cash is.”

How “absolute control” might work

CBDCs could be programmed so you can only buy certain things from certain people, at certain times, within specific dates, or only in approved locations. Their validity could depend on compliance with all government policies (climate, medical, social, and tax). They could be subject to maximum or minimum holding limits. They could be programmed to discourage saving and encourage 'investing' in approved shares and bonds (such as the new EU 'SIU' initiative or in line with UK financial industry lobbying and 'research'). 

Politicians and central bankers may say they do not intend to implement any such controls, but such assurances are worthless. To quote the UK Parliament's own Economic Affairs Committee, "while the Governor of the Bank of England told the committee that he did not see a CBDC as a way to implement monetary policy, the committee noted that his successors may disagree".

Efforts to pass crypto legislation in the US Senate face mounting resistance amid growing ethical concerns around US President Donald Trump’s ties to crypto.

In a May 5 letter to the Office of Government Ethics, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Jeff Merkley said that Trump and his family stand to personally profit from an investment involving UAE state-backed firm MGX, crypto exchange Binance and World Liberty Financial (WLFI).

The senators called for an urgent probe, warning the deal may violate the US Constitution’s Emoluments Clause and federal bribery statutes.

At the center of the controversy is WLFI’s USD1 stablecoin, reportedly chosen for a $2 billion investment MGX plans to make into Binance.

The senators said the transaction amounts to a potential backdoor for foreign influence and self-enrichment, with Trump’s allies allegedly set to receive hundreds of millions of dollars:

Bitcoin Core developers have decided to remove a limit on transaction data in the next network upgrade, enabling more data to be included in a more efficient way. 

“Bitcoin Core’s next release will, by default, relay and mine transactions whose OP_RETURN outputs exceed 80 bytes and allow any number of these outputs,” read the announcement on GitHub by Bitcoin developer Greg Sanders on May 5. 

The long-standing limit was originally a “gentle signal that block space should be used sparingly for non-payment proof of publication data,” has outlived its utility, he added. 

The proposal (PR 32359) was created by Bitcoin pioneer Peter Todd at the request of Chaincode Labs. 

OP_RETURN is a special type of Bitcoin (BTC) transaction output that allows storing small amounts of data on the blockchain, popularized during the ordinals inscriptions craze in early 2024.

Alex Mashinsky, the founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius, has blasted the government's 20-year “venom-laced” sentence request, declaring it a “death-in-prison sentence.”

The US Department of Justice requested Mashinsky receive at least 20 years behind bars in the May 8 sentencing for his role in misleading Celsius users and profiting from the price manipulation of Celsius (CEL), which would make the 59-year-old 79 if he serves the whole sentence.

Lawyers acting for Mashinsky argued in a May 5 reply memorandum filed in a New York district court that he should receive no more than 366 days, because the DOJ hasn't taken into account his status as a nonviolent first-time offender with a previously unblemished 30-year history in business.  

“The government's venom-laced submission recasts this case as one involving a predator with an intent to target victims, harm them, and steal their money,” they said.

“It concludes by recommending that a first time, nonviolent offender who pled guilty and accepts responsibility receive a death-in-prison sentence.”

The Israel-based eToro Group says it’s looking for a valuation of up to $4 billion with its initial public offering in the US, as the stock and crypto trading platform forges ahead with listing on the Nasdaq.

The company and existing stockholders are aiming to raise $500 million through offering a total of 10 million shares priced between $46 to $50 apiece, eToro said on May 5.

A filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission shows eToro is offering 5 million shares, with a further 5 million being put up by the likes of the company’s co-founder and CEO, Yoni Assia; his brother and executive director, Ronen Assia; along with venture firms Spark Capital, BRM Group and Andalusian Private Capital, among others.

The company offers stock and crypto trading targeting retail and plans to list on the tech-heavy Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker “ETOR.”

It's slated to compete with Robinhood Markets Inc. (HOOD), which saw crypto trading dip in the first quarter but whose shares have climbed by nearly 30% so far this year, according to Google Finance.

A Russian-Israeli citizen allegedly involved in the $190 million Nomad bridge hack will soon be extradited to the US after he was reportedly arrested at an Israeli airport while boarding a flight to Russia. 

Alexander Gurevich will be investigated for his alleged involvement in several “computer crimes,” including laundering millions of dollars and transferring stolen property allegedly connected to the Nomad Bridge hack in 2022, The Jerusalem Post reported on May 5.

Gurevich returned to Israel from an overseas trip on April 19 but was ordered to appear before the Jerusalem District Court for an extradition hearing soon after, according to the report. 

On April 29, Gurevich changed his name in Israel’s Population Registry to “Alexander Block” and received a passport under that name at Israel’s Ben-Gurion Airport the next day.

He was arrested at the same airport two days later, on May 1, while waiting to board a flight to Russia. 

Two Florida crypto bills have been removed from the legislative process in the latest blow to American state-level strategic Bitcoin reserve ambitions. 

Florida’s House Bill 487 and Senate Bill 550 have been “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration” on May 3, according to the Florida Senate. 

Florida’s legislative session adjourned on May 2 without the passage of these two bills, which would have advanced legislation to establish a crypto reserve for the state. The Senate and House agreed to extend the session until June 6 to address budget plans. 

Lawmakers passed about 230 bills during the session, dealing with things like prohibiting putting fluoride in the water, protecting state parks, and a school smartphone ban, but diversifying state treasury portfolios was not among them. 

HB 487, which was introduced in February, would have allowed Florida’s chief financial officer and the State Board of Administration to invest up to 10% of certain state funds into Bitcoin (BTC).

A hacker who took over the Tron DAO X account is estimated to have made around $45,000 in improperly solicited funds, according to a spokesperson from Tron. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, the Tron public relations team confirmed that on May 2, the Tron DAO account posted a contract address and sent direct messages to solicit payments in exchange for promotional advertising on the Tron account.

“Our security team quickly identified the intrusion and cut off access to the hacker, but we ask the community to continue to be vigilant. We will never ask anyone for payments like this via DM or otherwise,” they said. 

The team said that based on the illicit contract address the hacker posted, the amount improperly solicited appeared to be around $45,000. 

Asked whether the same hacker could be responsible for the supposed New York Post’s X account hack on May 3, the Tron team told Cointelegraph that there “appear to be some similarities” between the two security incidents; however, they also cautioned that the investigation is ongoing and “any definitive connection would be premature.” 

The Tron network has drawn closer to regaining the lead from Ethereum in Tether circulation after another big mint by the US stablecoin issuer.

On May 5, Tether minted another $1 billion Tether (USDT) on the Tron network, according to Arkham Intelligence. This brings the total USDT on Tron to $71.4 billion, according to the Tether Transparency report. 

In comparison, there is currently $72.8 billion USDT circulating on the Ethereum network, so just $1.4 billion more USDT on Tron will see it become the leading network for the world’s largest stablecoin issuer, as it has been previously over the last two years. 

Tron was ahead of Ethereum for USDT circulation between July 2022 and November 2024, but a large $18 billion mint on Ethereum pushed the network ahead again, according to CryptoQuant. 

The third-largest network for USDT is Solana, which has $1.9 billion circulating, and there are smaller amounts on Ton, Avalanche, Aptos, Near, Celo and Cosmos. 

The new “Digital Asset Market Structure Discussion Draft” introduced by House Republicans on May 5 could work to reduce the dominance of large crypto firms and promote more participation in the broader market, according to an executive from Paradigm. 

The discussion draft, led by the House agricultural and financial services committee chairs Glenn Thompson and French Hill, is an “incremental, albeit meaningful, rewrite” of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21), Paradigm’s vice president of regulatory affairs Justin Slaughter said in a May 5 X post.

One of the major changes from FIT21 is that the draft defines an affiliated person as anyone who owns more than 1% of a digital commodity issued by the project — down from 5% in the FIT21 bill — a move Slaughter said may curb the influence of big crypto firms and lead to more participation in the crypto market.

The draft also defines a “mature blockchain system” as one that, together with its related digital commodity, is not under the “common control” of any person or group.

The Securities and Exchange Commission would be the main authority regulating activity on crypto networks until they become sufficiently decentralized, Slaughter noted.

Samourai Wallet’s lawyers allege federal prosecutors suppressed advice that the firm didn’t need a license before they charged executives at the crypto mixing service months later. 

In a May 5 letter to a Manhattan federal court, lawyers for Samourai co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill said prosecutors disclosed that the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) representatives told them six months before they charged the pair “that under FinCEN’s guidance, the Samourai Wallet app would not qualify as a ‘Money Services Business’ requiring a FinCEN license.”

“Shockingly, six months later, the same prosecutors criminally charged Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill with operating just such a business without a FinCEN license,” the lawyers added.

The letter claimed that prosecutors were required to share their discussions with FinCEN over Samourai two weeks after they unsealed charges, making the deadline May 8 last year, but instead “suppressed this information for over a year, disclosing it only on April 1, 2025.” 

Prosecutors charged Samourai CEO Rodriguez and its technology chief Hill with conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business and money laundering conspiracy in February 2024, unsealing the charges and arresting the pair in April that year.