Bitmain recently announced it would open its first BTC mining hardware manufacturing facility in the United States by the end of 2025. American Bitcoin, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining company backed by members of US President Donald Trump’s family, exercised an option to purchase up to 17,280 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), hardware for crypto mining, from Bitmain earlier this month. The mining company purchased a fleet of 16,299 Antminer U3S21EXPH units from Bitmain, capable of 14.02 exahashes per second (EH/s) of computing power, for about $314 million, according to TheMinerMag. The deal also excluded any potential price increases from the Trump administration’s sweeping trade tariffs and import duties, which will impact Bitmain mining hardware manufactured in China. Read more
Citi is exploring cryptocurrency custody and payment services, with an initial focus on stablecoin-backed assets. Wall Street giant Citigroup is weighing plans to offer cryptocurrency custody and payment services, aiming to capitalize on a market bolstered by Trump-era regulatory approvals and pro-industry legislation. Biswarup Chatterjee, a Citigroup executive, told Reuters that the bank’s initial focus would likely be custody services for “high-quality assets backing stablecoins.” Chatterjee works within Citigroup’s services division, which manages treasury, payments, cash management and other enterprise solutions for large corporations. Read more
The bureau warned that anyone offering recommendations on a “crypto recovery law firm” or claiming to be a lawyer could be targeting the victims of crypto scams. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a public service announcement for victims of crypto scams looking for legal advice to recover their funds. In a Wednesday notice, the FBI said that fictitious law firms were targeting individuals who had previously been scammed out of some or all of their crypto holdings, putting them at additional risk. According to the bureau, the scammers’ actions left victims at risk of compromising their personal data and other funds. The announcement, based on an update for similar warnings from the FBI in August 2023 and June 2024, cautioned people against accepting assistance from anyone recommending a “crypto recovery law firm” or any law firm “requesting payment in cryptocurrency or prepaid gift cards.” Read more