One of the developers behind the crypto-mixing protocol Samourai Wallet has publicly expressed hopes for a pardon, along with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering pardoning 250 people to commemorate the country's 250th birthday on July 4, according to The Wall Street Journal. An official announcement could come on June 14, Trump's birthday, or during the Independence Day event on July 4, the WSJ reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. However, the pardons are still in the preliminary stages and have yet to be confirmed. More than 16,000 formal requests for presidential pardons were submitted last year. Read more
Iran’s leadership is betting it can outlast an under-pressure Donald Trump in its peace negotiations with Washington, but its defiance risks renewed military confrontation, analysts say. With a shaky ceasefire holding, almost two-and-a-half months after the US-Israeli war against the Islamic republic began, the US president has angrily dismissed Iran’s responses to an American proposal for a settlement, warning the truce is on its last legs. But analysts say that even after the assassination of long-time supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, Iran’s leadership remains fiercely ideological and dedicated to the preservation of the Islamic republic set up in the 1979 revolution that ousted the shah. The Iran flag flutters from a tall flagpole over high-rise buildings in northern Tehran on May 12, 2026. — AFP “They do think they can outlast Trump. The war is existential for them,” Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the Chatham House think tank in Lon...
10x Research CEO Markus Thielen said Bitcoin’s strength above $80,000 could be supported by two favorable decisions in the US Senate this week. Bitcoin briefly dipped before surging over $82,000 on Sunday as US President Donald Trump rejected Iran’s counteroffer to a peace deal, which could prolong tension in the Middle East. “I don’t like it — TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE," Trump said in a post to Truth Social on Sunday after reading Iran’s proposal to end the war. Iran has previously requested that the US pay for war reparations and unfreeze blocked Iranian financial assets. Bitcoin (BTC) fell from $81,430 to $80,520 within 45 minutes of Trump’s post before whipsawing nearly 2.3% to $82,347 less than three hours later, according to CoinGecko data. Bitcoin’s rise also resulted in nearly $64 million worth of short positions being wiped out over the last four hours, according to CoinGlass data. Read more