Indian crypto exchange Mudrex explains withdrawal suspension  

Ethereum researcher Virgil Griffith was released from prison custody on April 9, the Bureau of Prison (BOP) officials confirmed to Cointelegraph.According to crypto developer Brantly Millegan, Griffith will remain in a halfway house for several weeks while waiting to complete the next steps in his parole process.Griffith was arrested in 2019 for giving a lecture about blockchain technology and its power to circumvent US sanctions to an audience in North Korea.Virgil Griffith pictured in the center with his parents immediately following his release from prison custody on April 9. Source: Brantly MilleganThe US government claimed the researcher violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) by giving North Korea “highly technical information” despite the content of the lecture being widely available knowledge published on the internet.Griffith’s case highlights the tension between blockchain developers and state powers as the nascent technology continues to create avenues for individuals and countries to escape financial controls, censorship, and surveillance.Related: Crypto urges Congress to change DOJ rule used against Tornado Cash devsVirgil Griffith’s legal battle against US prosecutorsIn January 2020, a US grand jury indicted Griffith with conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, which gives the Executive Branch of government the power to restrict economic activity between US citizens and foreign powers deemed to be adversarial to the United States.Griffith initially pleaded not guilty to the charges. The software developer’s attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case in October 2020, arguing that Griffith did not violate the law by presenting what was already widely available public knowledge.Griffith on a crypto-focused lecture in 2019 to a North Korean audience. Source: Cointelegraph/United States Department of Justice.Following a lengthy legal battle, which took nearly two years, Griffith pleaded guilty to violating sanctions laws as part of a plea deal with the US government in September 2021.The Ethereum researcher was sentenced to 63 months in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine by the court in April 2022. However, the legal battle did not end there.Two years later, in April 2024, the researcher’s attorneys submitted a motion to reduce the prison sentence, which US prosecutors opposed, citing Griffith’s actions as harmful to national security.Despite the pushback from the prosecutors, New York Judge Kevin Castel issued a ruling in July 2024 reducing Griffth’s prison sentence to 56 months.Magazine: The FBI’s takedown of Virgil Griffith for breaking sanctions, firsthand

Prediction marketplace Kalshi has started taking Bitcoin (BTC) deposits in a bid to onboard more crypto-native users.The company that lets users bet on events ranging from election outcomes to Rotten Tomatoes film ratings has seen a strong uptake among crypto traders, Kalshi told Cointelegraph on April 9. For instance, event contracts for betting on Bitcoin’s hour-by-hour price changes have seen $143 million in trading volume to date, a spokesperson said.Kalshi is a derivatives exchange regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). As of April 9, it listed some 50 crypto-related event contracts, including markets for betting on coins’ 2025 highs and lows, as well as on headlines such as US President Donald Trump’s proposed National Bitcoin Reserve. Kalshi has doubled down on crypto event contract markets. Source: KalshiThe platform started accepting crypto payments in October when it enabled stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) deposits. Kalshi relies on ZeroHash — a crypto payments infrastructure provider — for off-ramping BTC and USDC and converting the deposits to US dollars. The exchange accepts BTC deposits only from the Bitcoin network. Most Kalshi traders no longer expect core tokens to earn positive returns this year. Source: KalshiRelated: Kalshi traders place the odds of US recession in 2025 at over 61%More accurate than pollsLaunched in 2021, Kalshi rose to prominence ahead of the US’s November elections. It became a top venue for trading on 2024 political events after winning a lawsuit against the CFTC, which tried to block Kalshi from listing contracts tied to elections. The regulator argued that political prediction markets threaten the integrity of elections, but industry analysts say they often capture public sentiment more accurately than polls. For instance, prediction markets, including Kalshi, accurately predicted Trump’s presidential election win even as polls indicated a tossup.“Event contract markets are a valuable public good for which there is no evidence of significant manipulation or widespread use for any nefarious purposes that the Commission alleges,” Harry Crane, a statistics professor at Rutgers University, said in an August comment letter filed with the CFTC.As of April 9, Kalshi traders peg the odds of the US entering a recession at 68%, according to its website. In March, Kalshi partnered with Robinhood to bring prediction markets to the popular online brokerage platform. Robinhood’s stock rose some 8% on the news. Kalshi competes with Polymarket, a Web3-based prediction platform. Polymarket processed more than $3 billion in trading volumes tied to the US presidential election despite being off-limits for US traders.Magazine: Bitcoin heading to $70K soon? Crypto baller funds SpaceX flight: Hodler’s Digest, March 30 – April 5

As markets reel from geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty, Bitcoin has shown relative resilience during events like Trump’s recent tariff bombshells, according to Blockstream CEO Adam Back.While in the short term, Bitcoin (BTC) may move in tandem with stocks and other risk-on assets, Back sees the long-term trend telling a different story.“Bitcoin is fully decoupled because it’s gone up five or six times since the bottom of the market three years ago,” he said during an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at Paris Blockchain Week.Back, who is one of the original cypherpunks and a key contributor to Bitcoin’s early development, predicts strong adoption tailwinds for BTC: regulatory clarity, institutional interest, and the legitimizing force of exchange-traded funds (ETFs). He notes that while most long-term holders are already “all in” and unable to buy dips, entities like BlackRock and sovereign wealth funds are stepping in, quietly absorbing supply.The Blockstream CEO also touches on the geopolitical dimension, discussing a scenario in which governments may begin actively acquiring Bitcoin. “If the US government doesn’t go on a buying spree and buy 1 million Bitcoin over the next five years, that gives more time for the new entrants who’ve got access finally through brokers and through the ETFs to build up the Bitcoin position.”Despite short-term volatility, Back remains firmly bullish on the mid-term outlook: “Typically, there would be half a dozen 30% drops in a bull market, so I think that’s probably where we are now.”Watch the full interview now on the Cointelegraph’s YouTube channel — and subscribe for more exclusive conversations with the biggest names in crypto.