Cointelegraph.com
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Cointelegraph.com - 20:26 May 08, 2025
Michelle Bond, facing campaign finance charges, is one of the last significant figures tied to cryptocurrency exchange FTX, through her husband, to be awaiting trial. Michelle Bond, the wife of former FTX Digital Markets co-CEO Ryan Salame, who faces federal campaign finance charges, is pushing for dismissal on the grounds that US prosecutors deceived her husband in a plea deal. In a May 7 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Bond’s lawyers reiterated some of the claims Salame made in opposing his plea deal with the government, which ultimately still led to him serving time in prison. She claimed that prosecutors obtained a deal with Salame through “stealth and deception” by allegedly agreeing they would not file charges against Bond. “Mr. Salame and Ms. Bond’s attorneys were advised that the agreement to cease investigating Ms. Bond could not be placed within the four corners of the Salame plea or other written agreement, but the government still offered it as an inducement... -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:35 May 08, 2025
A federal court has agreed with the Trump-appointed US attorney to levy a harsh sentence on former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky. The US federal court for the Southern District of New York has sentenced former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky to 12 years in prison for fraud. Mashinsky’s legal team sought a light sentence. They highlighted his spotless record before the Celsius incident, along with his military service and willingness to plead guilty. But US prosecutors were less inclined to leniency, suggesting on April 28 that the judge deliver a 20-year sentence for his actions. Betting markets predicted a light sentence ahead of the May 8 hearing. Polymarket showed only 11% odds for a 20-year sentence or higher. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:15 May 08, 2025
The impact of positive Bitcoin-related legislative and regulatory progress finally trickles down to BTC price as the top cryptocurrency rallies above $101,000. Key takeaways: Bitcoin rallies to $101,707 against a backdrop of strong fundamentals in the regulatory and traditional finance space. Traders are confident that $100,000 will hold as support. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 19:15 May 08, 2025
XRP price jumps as traders react to Trump’s trade deal tease, whale accumulation, and a bullish technical breakout. Key takeaways: XRP surged on May 8, boosted by risk-on sentiment following US President Donald Trump’s teased trade deal with the UK. Whale accumulation continues, with the number of addresses holding 10,000+ XRP rising steadily on price dips. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:59 May 08, 2025
The GENIUS Act failed to clear a procedure called cloture after pushback from Senate Democrats, who raised concerns about US President Donald Trump's crypto ventures. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins of 2025 Act, known as the GENIUS Act, failed to pass cloture in the United States Senate on May 8, dealing a slight blow to cryptocurrency regulation in the country. The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Hagerty and co-sponsored by Senators Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand, Cynthia Lummis and Angela Alsobrooks, received last-minute pushback from Democrats, who took aim at the bill and raised concerns about US President Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures. To address the concerns of Senate Democrats, the bill had already been amended to include stricter requirements for stablecoin issuers for further provisions for Anti-Money Laundering. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 18:32 May 08, 2025
A March social media post announcing the president's plans for a strategic crypto reserve reportedly came from an employee of a lobbying firm tied to Ripple Labs. US President Donald Trump was reportedly manipulated by a lobbyist tied to Ripple Labs into announcing the XRP token would be part of his plans for a national cryptocurrency reserve. According to a May 8 Politico report, an employee of pro-Trump lobbyist Brian Ballard gave the president the text to a social media post she recommended he write announcing a US strategic crypto reserve that would include XRP, Solana (SOL), and Cardano (ADA). After he posted the message to his social media platform on March 2, Trump learned Ripple was one of Ballard’s clients, infuriating the president, who felt like he’d been used, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the incident. “He is not welcome in anything anymore,” said Trump, referencing Ballard, according to the report. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:59 May 08, 2025
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking at potentially exempting companies that issue tokenized securities from certain registration requirements. Updated to correct that the SEC sent a Wells notice to Uniswap but did not bring charges. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering rule changes to let companies more freely issue tokenized securities, SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said in a speech published on May 8. The regulator is “considering a potential exemptive order” for firms using blockchain technology to “issue, trade, and settle securities” that would release them from certain registration requirements, Peirce said in the speech. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 17:00 May 08, 2025
Has Ethereum been too complacent about fees? It no longer has the “luxury of being a peace-time research project,” said one conference panelist. Layer 2s have been a great blockchain success story. They’ve reduced congestion on the Ethereum mainnet, driving down gas fees while preserving security. But maybe they’ve become too successful, drawing chain activity and fee income from the parent that spawned them? At least that’s what some are suggesting lately, most recently at Cornell Tech’s blockchain conference in late April. Indeed, some think Ethereum should be a little greedier, or at least fight harder for a bigger part of the revenue pie, particularly sequencing fees. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 16:55 May 08, 2025
Missouri will become the first US state to eliminate the levy if Governor Mike Kehoe signs the bill into law. Missouri House Bill 594, a bill that would eliminate capital gains tax in the US state, has passed a vote in the state House of Representatives and now heads to Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe's desk for signature. According to attorney Aaron Brogan, the bill stipulates a 100% income tax deduction for any capital gains income because the Missouri tax code does not explicitly distinguish between capital gains and income tax. Brogan told Cointelegraph that the specific mechanism to exempt capital gains taxes outlined in HB 594 is unique and compared it to a similar income tax deduction in the federal tax code. The attorney explained: Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:22 May 08, 2025
Unlike the previous $100,000 hits, the new price spike came as Bitcoin market dominance surged above 60%, reflecting more bullish BTC sentiment. Bitcoin has reclaimed the $100,000 price level for the first time since January, reflecting renewed bullish sentiment among investors. Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $100,000 mark on May 8 at 3:22 pm UTC, surging 4.2% from the intraday low of $95,967, according to data from CoinGecko. It marked the third time that BTC has broken through the six-figure level since first achieving it on Dec. 5, 2024. A second all-time high followed on Jan. 20 ahead of US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:17 May 08, 2025
Though Alex Mashinsky's sentencing was still pending, the US government said it did not oppose his voluntarily surrendering after his daughter's wedding. Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky will probably be allowed to travel for his daughter’s wedding regardless of the outcome of his May 8 sentencing hearing. In a May 8 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge John Koeltl approved an application for Mashinsky to travel from New York to Memphis, Tennessee, between May 26 and May 29 for his daughter’s wedding. The approval was available on the public docket as of May 8, but appeared to have been removed at the time of publication. Judge Koeltl will determine in a May 8 hearing whether Mashinsky serves prison time following a plea deal with prosecutors. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 15:00 May 08, 2025
Cryptocurrency's path to mass adoption hinges on user experience. Simplifying complex interactions and enhancing trust will unlock its full potential. Opinion by Jonathan Farnell, CEO of Freedx It’s 2025, and over 560 million people worldwide are already using cryptocurrency — roughly 17 times the population of Tokyo. That’s a vibrant community, yet for every user who’s embraced it, billions more stand on the sidelines, put off by the complicated interactions and clunky interfaces of protocols, platforms, decentralized apps (DApps), and mobile applications. Why? Blockchain technology offers game-changing potential — decentralized ownership, secure trades — but let’s face it: Most people still find it intimidating, risky, and confusing. User experience (UX) might just be the deciding factor in whether cryptocurrency achieves mass adoption or remains a niche segment. Take complexity. A 2024 Chainalysis report pointed out that 43% of would-be crypto users shy away from the technical tangle of private keys and ga... -
Cointelegraph.com - 14:30 May 08, 2025
LLMs that affirm delusions likened to “schizophrenia-seeking missiles,” Billionaire claims AI leaders prepping for chance AI kills 50% of us. In the last edition of AI Eye, we reported that ChatGPT had become noticeably more sycophantic recently, and people were having fun giving it terrible business ideas shoes with zippers, soggy cereal cafe which it would uniformly say was amazing. The dark side of this behavior, however, is that combining a sycophantic AI with mentally ill users can result in the LLM uncritically endorsing and magnifying psychotic delusions. On X, a user shared transcripts of the AI endorsing his claim to feel like a prophet. “That’s amazing, said ChatGPT. That feeling clear, powerful, certain that’s real. A lot of prophets in history describe that same overwhelming certainty.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:51 May 08, 2025
Hut 8 increased its hashrate by 79% in Q1 2025 despite reporting a $134.3 million net loss, driven by major investments and the launch of its American Bitcoin subsidiary. Cryptocurrency mining firm Hut 8 increased its hashrate by 79% during the first quarter of the year. According to Hut8’s latest quarterly report released on May 8, the firm saw a net loss of $134.3 million despite revenue of $21.8 million. The firm’s CEO, Asher Genoot, explained that this was a result of large-scale investments. “As reflected in our results, the first quarter was a deliberate and necessary phase of investment,” Genoot said. “We believe the returns on this work will become increasingly visible in the quarters ahead.” Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:30 May 08, 2025
Held explores how Bitcoin can move beyond the "digital gold" narrative, rebrand for the next wave of users and navigate new political and technological frontiers. Bitcoin (BTC) has long been branded as “digital gold,” a store of value for believers in scarcity, decentralization and self-sovereignty. As institutional interest grows, geopolitics shift, and new layers emerge on Bitcoin’s stack, is it time for the narrative to evolve? In this episode of The Clear Crypto Podcast, hosts Nathan Jeffay and Gareth Jenkinson speak with longtime Bitcoiner and entrepreneur Dan Held, who argues that Bitcoin’s next chapter may unlock broader functionality, from programmable use cases to more nuanced messaging that reaches far beyond crypto-native circles. With US President Donald Trump openly backing Bitcoin — and reportedly owning it himself — Held said he sees a regulatory and reputational change. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:19 May 08, 2025
Deribit is the world's leading Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading platform, with more than $1.2 trillion in annual trading volume. Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US by trading volume, has agreed to acquire Deribit, one of the world’s biggest crypto derivatives trading platforms. Coinbase Global will acquire Deribit for about $2.9 billion, the exchange announced on May 8. The acquisition will allow Coinbase to expand into the profitable crypto derivatives market and continue scaling the platform’s global growth, Greg Tusar, Coinbase’s vice president of institutional product, said in the announcement. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:15 May 08, 2025
Browser-based crypto mining is making a quiet return in 2025, offering a low-barrier way to earn crypto, but its profitability and impact remain limited. Browser-based crypto mining sounds like a dream: Just open a webpage, let it run, and your computer starts earning crypto in the background. No bulky ASICs, no GPU farms, no long setup tutorials — just your browser doing the heavy lifting. The idea blew up in the late 2010s with tools like Coinhive, which let website owners mine Monero (XMR) using JavaScript. At first, it seemed like a clever alternative to ads; visitors donated a bit of unused CPU power, and websites earned crypto. But then came cryptojacking. Sites began running these scripts without user permission, draining resources and slowing down devices. In 2019, Coinhive shut down, citing shrinking returns and mounting scrutiny. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 13:00 May 08, 2025
Rootstock’s merged mining hit an all-time high in Q1 2025, even as DeFi TVL dropped 20% and user activity cooled across the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem. Smart contract platform Rootstock, the home of decentralized finance (DeFi) on Bitcoin, saw a sharp increase in network security and mining engagement in the first quarter of 2025, even as activity cooled. Merged mining participation surged to an all-time high of 81%, up from 56.4% in Q4 2024, driven by the integration of major mining pools Foundry and SpiderPool, according to Messari’s first “State of Rootstock” report for 2025, shared with Cointelegraph. The heightened miner interest boosted Rootstock’s hash power to over 740 exahashes per second, surpassing the total Bitcoin network hashrate recorded in October 2024. As a result, the network is now considered to be in a “mature phase” of merged mining growth. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:49 May 08, 2025
The co-founder of Sweat said he prioritizes making multichain DeFi accessible to millions through simple actions like walking and using its wallet. Sweat, a move-to-earn platform that rewards users for physical activity, has launched a personalized AI agent and expanded its multichain infrastructure. The update is designed to improve user onboarding by offering interactive guidance and simplifying asset management across blockchains. The AI agent, named Mia (short for Movement in Action), is powered by Near.AI — an open-source AI model platform with crosschain capabilities. Integrated into the Sweat wallet, Mia helps users to bridge, swap and manage their crypto rewards without needing deep crypto knowledge.. Sweat is rolling out support for Base, Ethereum, Arbitrum and BNB Chain. Within the app, users can now bridge assets and swap native tokens across networks, with the option to pay gas fees in Sweat (SWEAT) tokens. Read more -
Cointelegraph.com - 12:18 May 08, 2025
Ether price breaks out due to strengthening network activity and an increasing TVL, as the technical setup points to a further upside. Key takeaways: Ether breaks multimonth downtrend as traders target $3,000 ETH price. Ethereum TVL surges 41% to $52.8 billion in 30 days, with a 22% rise in daily transactions to 1.34 million, signaling strong network recovery. Read more
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