South Korean crypto emerges from failed coup into crackdown season  

US federal prosecutors are pressing ahead with their case against Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm, but will drop a small part of their indictment after the Department of Justice rolled back its crypto enforcement last month.Jay Clayton, the acting US Attorney for Manhattan, told federal court judge Katherine Polk Failla in a May 15 letter that the charges against Storm still stand, bar one part of a conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business charge.“After review of this case, this Office and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General have determined that this prosecution is consistent with the letter and spirit of the April 7, 2025 Memorandum from the Deputy Attorney General,” Clayton wrote.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s April memo said the Justice Department would end the so-called “regulation by prosecution” of crypto, and added that the agency wouldn’t prosecute crypto mixers like Tornado Cash “for the acts of their end users or unwitting violations of regulations.”A highlighted excerpt of Blanche’s memo stating that the Department of Justice was rolling back its crypto enforcement. Source: US Department of JusticeClayton added that the indictment against Storm will cut the accusation that he failed to comply with money transmitting business registration requirements.Prosecutors were pursuing that charge as part of their allegation that Storm conspired to run Tornado Cash as an unlicensed money transmitter.The government will still push ahead with the charge under the accusation that Storm transmitted funds while knowing they were derived from a criminal offence or were intended to support unlawful activity. The Justice Department alleged that Tornado Cash helped launder over $1 billion worth of crypto, including for the sanctioned North Korean state-backed hacking collective the Lazarus Group.Clayton said the Justice Department will also still pursue the other two charges in its indictment, one count of money laundering conspiracy and one count of conspiracy to violate US sanctions.Related: NFT founder stole millions from Bitcoin project, investors allege The money laundering and sanctions violations conspiracy charges each carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, while the unlicensed money transmitter conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years.Storm has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for July 14. He was charged alongside fellow founder Roman Semenov, who is at large and believed to be in his native Russia.Blanche memo cited in bids to tossOther crypto executives facing charges have pointed to Blanche’s memo in a bid to have their cases dismissed.Crypto mixer Samourai Wallet co-founders Keonne Rodriguez and William Hill had pointed to the memo to try to dismiss their charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and money laundering conspiracy.Braden John Karony, the CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, has also cited the memo in an attempt to have the charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy against him dismissed.Legal Panel: XRP win leaves Ripple a ‘bad actor’ with no crypto legal precedent set 

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal addressed some of the concerns raised by US lawmakers and industry leaders around President Donald Trump’s crypto ventures, and how they may affect related legislation.Speaking at the Consensus conference in Toronto on May 15, Grewal said there had been “hiccups” in Congress since the Senate Banking Committee voted to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins, or GENIUS Act, in March. Though Grewal said there were disputes over “substantial issues that need to be addressed” in the bill, he hinted that Trump’s involvement in the industry was a “complicating factor.” “The discussion around the president’s support for a certain memecoin or two and other efforts does add a certain level of challenge to the effort to get Democrats and Republicans aligned on the right way to regulate the [spot market], but I have confidence that the Senate and the House are going to sort all that out,” said Grewal.Paul Grewal (right) on stage at Consensus in Toronto on May 15. Source: Cointelegraph.Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren explicitly called out the Trump family’s crypto venture, World Liberty Financial, and its USD1 stablecoin in opposing the GENIUS Act. However, some of the bill’s supporters, like Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who proposed an earlier version of the legislation, said they would remove language specifically targeting the president’s crypto ventures.Related: Democrats seek suspicious activity reports linked to Trump crypto venturesWhatever the terms for modifications to the bill may be, many lawmakers still expect the Senate to take up another vote in a matter of days. Punchbowl reported on May 15 that Democrats “won major victories” after receiving assurances that some of their concerns around consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and national security safeguards would be addressed.First stablecoins, then a market structure bill?The House of Representatives is also considering draft legislation for a digital asset market structure bill, a different iteration of the FIT21 bill that passed the chamber in May 2024. Democratic representatives have similarly pushed back on the legislation, citing “Trump’s crypto corruption.””I think we’re gonna learn a lot from the progress we see just in the next few days on stablecoins on the appetite to really tackle all these problems on any schedule that resembles the one that was laid out not long ago by the White House and certain leaders in Congress,” said Grewal.Magazine: Trump’s crypto ventures raise conflict of interest, insider trading questions

Global foreign exchange and payments platforms are lobbying hard against stablecoins, which stand to significantly disrupt their business models, investor Kevin O’Leary said during a keynote address at Consensus 2025. Legacy forex and payments platforms often extract large fees for servicing cross-border cash transfers and stand to lose out on revenue if regulated stablecoins become accepted as a cheaper, faster alternative, O’Leary said at the Toronto conference. “Currency trading is a multi-trillion dollar market — and it’s old and ugly and inefficient,” O’Leary said, adding that “[ t]he biggest threat to that monopoly or oligopoly is a regulated stablecoin.” “Once that’s approved, the multi-trillion dollar FX market becomes efficient, transparent, and inexpensive,” he said. Kevin O’Leary speaking at Consensus. Source: CointelegraphStablecoin legislationUS lawmakers are working on legislation that stands to accelerate global stablecoin adoption, O’Leary added. US Senators are aiming to pass the so-called Genius Act — a framework for regulating stablecoins — before the end of May. “As soon as the SEC approves the stablecoin act, every regulator in the US’s circle — Abu Dhabi, Switzerland, England — will follow,” O’Leary said.“Who’s worried about this? The financial services industry. They hate this idea, and they’re working very hard to stop that bill from happening right now,” he added.O’Leary said regulatory clarity for stablecoins may be a precursor to broader cryptocurrency reform that could potentially unlock trillions of dollars in institutional capital.“When this language comes out, people will see really good refinement, a lot of progress, on things like consumer protection, bankruptcy protection, and ethics,” US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said during an event hosted by Coinbase’s lobbying arm, Stand with Crypto.As of May 15, stablecoins are collectively worth nearly $250 billion in market capitalization, according to data from CoinGecko. Tether’s US-dollar pegged stablecoin USDT is the leader, with a market cap of around $150 million, the data showed. It’s followed by Circle’s USDC, another US-dollar pegged stablecoin with a market cap of more than $60 billion.Magazine: Bitcoin to $1M ‘by 2029,’ CIA tips its hat to Bitcoin: Hodler’s Digest, April 27 – May 3