Meet the judges that will preside over Coinbase and Binance’s SEC lawsuits

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong is calling for legislative changes in the US to allow stablecoin holders to earn “onchain interest” on their holdings.In a March 31 post on X, Armstrong argued that crypto companies should be treated similarly to banks and be “allowed to, and incentivized to, share interest with consumers.” He added that allowing onchain interest would be “consistent with a free market approach.”Source: Brian ArmstrongThere are currently two competing pieces of federal stablecoin legislation working their way through the legislative process in the US: the Stablecoin Transparency and Accountability for a Better Ledger Economy (STABLE) Act, and the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act.In reference to the stablecoin legislation, Armstrong said the US had an opportunity to “level the playing field and ensure these laws pave a way for all regulated stablecoins to deliver interest directly to consumers, the same way a savings or checking account can.” Armstrong: Onchain interest a boon for US economyArmstrong argued that while stablecoins have already found product-market fit by “digitizing the dollar and other fiat currencies,” the addition of onchain interest would allow “the average person, and the US economy, to reap the full benefits.”He said that if legislative changes allowed stablecoin issuers to pay interest to holders, US consumers could earn a yield of around 4% on their holdings, far outstripping the 2024 average interest yield on a consumer savings account, which Armstrong cited as 0.41%.Armstrong also said onchain interest could benefit the broader US economy — by incentivizing the global use of US dollar stablecoins. This could see their use grow, “pulling dollars back to U.S. treasuries and extending dollar dominance in an increasingly digital global economy,” according to the Coinbase CEO. He also argued that the potential for a higher yield than traditional savings accounts would result in “more yield in consumers’ hands means more spending, saving, investing — fueling economic growth in all local economies where stablecoins are held.”“If we don’t unlock onchain interest, the U.S. misses out on billions more USD users and trillions in potential cash flows,” Armstrong added.Currently, neither the STABLE Act nor the GENIUS Act gives the legal go-ahead for onchain interest-generating stablecoins. In fact, in its current form, the STABLE Act includes a short passage prohibiting “payment stablecoin” issuers from paying yield to holders:Source: STABLE ActRelated: Stablecoins, tokenized assets gain as Trump tariffs loomSimilarly, the GENIUS Act, which recently passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 18-6, has been amended to exclude interest-bearing instruments from its definition of a “payment stablecoin.”Commenting on the current state of the STABLE Act, Representative Bryan Steil told Eleanor Terrett, host of the Crypto in America podcast, that two pieces of legislation are positioned to “mirror up” following a few more draft rounds in the House and Senate — due to the differences between them being textual rather than substantive. “At the end of the day, I think there’s recognition that we want to work with our Senate colleagues to get this across the line,” Steil said.Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

A new semi-permissionless privacy tool, Privacy Pools, has launched on Ethereum, allowing users to transact privately while proving their funds aren’t linked to illicit activities.The privacy tool, launched by Ethereum builders 0xbow.io on March 31, earned support from the likes of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who not only backed the privacy project but made one of the first deposits on the platform. 0xbow.io said that it implements “Association Sets” to batch transactions into the anonymous Privacy Pools and that a screening test is conducted to ensure that those transactions aren’t linked to illicit actors, such as hackers, phishers and scammers.gm Ethereum ☀️It is our great honor to announce the mainnet launch of Privacy Pools!ETH users can now achieve on-chain privacy, while still dissociating from illicit fundsIt is now up to all of us to Make Privacy Normal Again 🫡More info in this thread 👇 pic.twitter.com/3nJO0AxoD1— 0xbow.io (@0xbowio) March 31, 2025The Association Sets are “dynamic” — meaning that if a transaction is admitted but later found to be illicit, it can be removed from the set without disrupting any other deposits, 0xbow.io said.If a deposit is disqualified, the user can click the “ragequit” function to return the funds to their original deposit address.The innovation is part of 0xbow.io’s vision to “Make Privacy Normal Again” while also attempting to achieve regulatory compliance.  Privacy protocols have received considerable backlash from regulators in recent years due to their increasing use by illicit actors to launder funds. One of those privacy tools, Tornado Cash, was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) between August 2022 and March 2025 after it was linked to around $7 billion laundered by the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group.Tornado Cash has since been removed from OFAC’s blacklist after a US appeals court said the sanctions were unlawful in January 2025.0xbow.io noted that initial deposits are limited to 1 Ether (ETH) but that the limit would be raised once the privacy protocol is more battle-tested.Privacy Pools inspired by Buterin and othersOver 21 ETH has already been transferred into Privacy Pools from 69 deposits, including at least one from Buterin, 0xbow.io noted.Source: Vitalik ButerinIn addition to Buterin, 0xbow.io said it also received investment support from Number Group, BanklessVC, Public Works and several angel investors.Related: Privacy isn’t a luxury in crypto, it’s a necessity — Midnight CEO0xbow.io also praised Buterin, Chainalysis Chief Scientist Jacob Illum, and two academics at the University of Basel in Switzerland for crafting a September 2023 white paper outlining how Privacy Pools could be built. 0xbow.io strategic adviser Ameen Soleimani also contributed to the paper, which has seen over 12,000 downloads and has been cited in nine other papers.The Privacy Pool code also passed a successful audit from Audit Wizard. a smart contract auditing firm co-founded by former Apple engineer Joe van Loon.More than $41 billion worth of illicit transfers were made in 2024,  which made up 0.14% of total onchain volume for the year, according to the Chainalysis 2025 Crypto Crime report published on Jan. 15.While it marked around an 11% fall from 2023, Chainalysis said that figure could climb to around $51 billion as more criminal-tied addresses are found.Magazine: What are native rollups? Full guide to Ethereum’s latest innovation

Two Republican candidates supported by at least a combined $1.5 million in media spending from a cryptocurrency-backed political action committee (PAC) are making final pleas to voters turning out for special elections in Florida congressional districts.On April 1, voters in Florida’s 1st and 6th congressional districts will head to the polls to decide whether to keep Republican representatives or hand over control to Democrats for the first time in roughly 30 years. The Defend American Jobs PAC — an affiliate of Fairshake, which poured more than $131 million in the 2024 US election cycle — has spent a combined $1.5 million on media for Republicans Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, running against Democrats Gay Valimont and Josh Weil, respectively.Source: Gay Valimont for CongressThough the Florida congressional districts have historically favored Republican candidates, Democrats Valimont and Weil both raised significantly more than Patronis and Fine as of March — a reported roughly $6.5 million and $10 million against the Republicans’ $1 million and $1 million, respectively. These amounts do not reflect the media buys from PACs like Defend American Jobs or Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s America PAC, which spent more than $20,000 for texting services in the two congressional elections.As of March 31, there were four vacant seats in the US House of Representatives following two Democratic lawmakers dying and two Republicans resigning in anticipation of positions with the Trump administration. If Democrats were to keep their existing two seats and flip the two in Florida, Republicans’ majority in the chamber would narrow to 217 to 218 — not changing majority control, but likely influencing how the House would consider legislation and policy.Among the crypto-related legislation being considered in Congress included a market structure bill and stablecoin regulation. Some lawmakers have suggested that they intended to get both bills passed before Congress goes on recess in August.Related: Florida bill proposes strict rules against online gamblingMichigan Representative Shri Thanedar, a Democrat who described himself as largely self-funded and may have benefitted from crypto-backed PAC money in his 2024 race, spoke to Cointelegraph on March 27 about the role the industry could have on future elections. Protect Progress — another Fairshake-affiliated PAC — spent more than $1 million on a media buy to support the Michigan representative in his August 2024 primary. He defeated Republican Martell Bivings in November with 68% of the vote.“I was surprised to see those ads,” Thanedar told Cointelegraph, referring to Protect Progress’ media outreach. “I was not aware that such an ad would be appearing in support of my campaign.”The Michigan lawmaker added:“Crypto is not unique to this. There are multiple industries […] that have PACs and Super PACs and independent expenditures. All of that money, the dark money in our politics, has to go. As long as we have the dark money in politics, that is going to impact our politicians.” Looking to the 2026 midtermsAfter many Democratic and Republican candidates espousing “pro-crypto” views won in the 2024 elections, Fairshake spokesperson Josh Vlasto said the PAC was “keeping [its] foot on the gas” in the future. Major firms like Coinbase and Ripple Labs have contributed tens of millions of dollars to the PAC.As of January, Fairshake reported holding more than $116 million to spend on candidates in 2025 and 2026. Vlasto declined to comment on the April 1 special elections but said after the January primaries, the PAC was “proud to support [Patronis and Fine] with TV ad campaigns.” Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions