Telegram founder Pavel Durov given permission to leave France  

US Senator John Kennedy grilled prospective Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) chairman Paul Atkins about a potential pardon for Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried during the Senate Banking Committee’s March 27 nomination hearing.The Louisiana Republican directed a series of questions about the former FTX CEO toward Atkins and probed the prospective SEC chairman about donations Bankman-Fried’s family made to Stanford University.Senator John Kennedy questions prospective SEC chairman Paul Atkins. Source: Senate Banking CommitteeKennedy then urged the SEC to take action to prevent any potential pardons on behalf of SBF. Kennedy added:”There should not be two standards of law and punishment for people in America. And every time you come to this committee, I am going to pounce on you like a ninja to find out what the SEC has done because I don’t think the SEC has done a damn thing.”“I read in the paper that the Bankman-Frieds were trying to get a pardon. They are crooks, and I expect the SEC to do something about it,” the Senator continued.Reports emerged in January that SBF’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, were seeking a pardon for their son from recently-elected US President Donald Trump following his high-profile pardon of Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht.Paul Atkins answers questions at his nomination hearing. Source: Senate Banking CommitteeRelated: Ex-FTX CEO moved to transit facility after interviewPresidential pardon “unlikely” for SBFSBF is unlikely to secure a pardon for several reasons that differentiate the case from that of the Silk Road founder, according to White Collar Support Group executive director William Livolsi.In the case of Ulbricht, the charges were victimless crimes tied to the operation of a contraband marketplace as opposed to causing billions in investor losses.Livolsi added that the sentence imposed on Ulbricht of two lifetimes behind bars plus an additional 40 years without the possibility of parole and the public campaign promise made by then-candidate Trump to pardon Ulbricht set the situation apart.Tucker Carlson interviews SBF from prison. Source: Tucker CarlsonDespite this, SBF has attempted to cozy up to Republicans in several interviews with independent media outlets, including a February interview with The New York Sun and an interview with Tucker Carlson on March 2025.The Carlson interview was not sanctioned by prison authorities, leading to SBF being thrown into solitary confinement following the interview and moved from a prison facility located in New York to Oklahoma.Magazine: Legal issues surround the FBI’s creation of fake crypto tokens

GameStop shed nearly $3 billion in market capitalization on March 27 as investors second-guessed the videogame retailer’s plans to stockpile Bitcoin (BTC), according to data from Google Finance. On March 26, GameStop tipped plans to use proceeds from a $1.3 billion convertible debt offering to buy Bitcoin — an increasingly popular strategy for public companies looking to boost share performance. GameStop’s announcement came a day after it proposed building a stockpile of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and US dollar-pegged stablecoins. Investors initially celebrated the news, sending shares up 12% on March 26. Shareholders’ sentiment reversed on March 27, pushing GameStop’s stock, GME, down by nearly 24%, according to Google Finance. GameStop’s stock reversed gains on March 27. Source: Google FinanceRelated: GameStop buying Bitcoin would ‘bake the noodles’ of TradFi: Swan execChilly receptionAnalysts say the chilly reception reflects fears GameStop may be seeking to distract investors from deeper problems with its business model. “Investors are not necessarily optimistic on the underlying business,” Bret Kenwell, US investment analyst at eToro, told Reuters on March 27. “There are question marks with GameStop’s model. If bitcoin is going to be the pivot, where does that leave everything else?”The sell-off also highlights investors’ more bearish outlook on Bitcoin as macroeconomic instability, including ongoing trade wars, weighs on the cryptocurrency’s spot price. Bitcoin is down around 7% year-to-date, hovering around $87,000 as of March 27, according to Google Finance.Bitcoin’s “price briefly jumped to $89,000 but has now reversed its trend,” Agne Linge, decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol WeFi’s head of growth, told Cointelegraph. Linge added that trade wars triggered by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs remain a concern for traders.Public companies are among the largest Bitcoin holders. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.NETCorporate Bitcoin treasuriesGameStop is a relative latecomer among public companies creating Bitcoin treasuries.In 2024, rising Bitcoin prices sent shares of Strategy soaring more than 350%, according to data from FinanceCharts. Founded by Michael Saylor, Strategy has spent more than $30 billion buying BTC since pioneering corporate Bitcoin accumulation in 2020, according to data from BitcoinTreasuries.NET.NET. Strategy’s success prompted dozens of other companies to build Bitcoin treasuries of their own. Public companies collectively hold nearly $58 billion of Bitcoin as of March 27, the data shows. Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

US Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill on March 26 to prohibit the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The “Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act,” would prohibit the Fed from offering certain products or services directly to American individuals, a key component of any CBDC.The Texas Republican’s bill can be considered a companion bill to Minnesota Republican Representative Tom Emmer’s anti-CBDC legislation, which was reintroduced on March 6. A companion bill is a piece of legislation that is similarly or identically worded to another bill, and introduced in the other chamber of Congress.Both bills state that the prohibition should not include any dollar-denominated currency that is open, permissionless, and private and “preserves the privacy protections of United States coins and physical currency.” Sen. Ted Cruz’s anti-CBDC bill. Source: Ted CruzSince 2020, the Federal Reserve has been exploring a digital version of the US dollar. According to the CBDC Tracker, at least four research projects are currently underway by various Federal Reserve entities.Cruz has been a vocal opponent of CBDCs since at least 2022, when he introduced legislation that would ban the Fed from introducing a direct-to-consumer CBDC. He followed it up with similar legislation in 2023, and in 2024 sought to block the attempt by then-President Joe Biden’s administration to create a CBDC.Emmer said at a congressional hearing that “CBDC technology is inherently un-American” and warned that allowing unelected bureaucrats to issue a CBDC “could upend the American way of life.”Related: North Carolina Senate overrides governor veto, passes bill banning CBDCCritics denounce CBDCsWhile CBDCs have some purported benefits, critics of the technology have long said that digital currency issued directly to citizens could pose privacy infringement and government overreach.However, some nations and regional governments are still exploring this technology. While European consumers show little interest in CBDCs, lawmakers in the region are pushing to create a digital Euro. Israel has released a preliminary design to create a digital shekel, and Iran will reportedly launch a CBDC in the near future.In the US, the creation of a CBDC has been met with more resistance. President Donald Trump has vowed to “never allow” a CBDC in the country, and Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, has said that the Fed will not issue a CBDC while he is in charge.Though CBDCs could modernize legacy financial systems and make them more efficient, they would also centralize the money supply.Magazine: Asia Express: India mulls new crypto ban to support CBDC, Lazarus Group strikes again