Why Pierre Poilievre may not be Canada’s crypto savior  

The US Senate has confirmed US President Donald Trump pick Paul Atkins as chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission in a 51-45 vote, with lawmakers largely voting along party lines.His appointment comes several months after Trump named Atkins to lead the commission late last year.Atkins previously served as an SEC commissioner between 2002 and 2008.He will take over from Mark Uyeda, who has served as the SEC’s acting chair since Jan. 20.”We welcome Paul Atkins as the next Chairman of the SEC. A veteran of our Commission, we look forward to him joining with us, along with our dedicated staff, to fulfill our mission on behalf of the investing public,” Uyeda and Commissioners Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw wrote in an April 9 statement.This is a developing story, and further information will be added as it becomes available.

Digital asset manager 21Shares has filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a spot Dogecoin exchange-traded fund, following similar filings from rivals Bitwise and Grayscale.The 21Shares Dogecoin ETF would seek to track the price of the memecoin Dogecoin (DOGE), according to the firm’s April 9 Form S-1 registration statement. The Dogecoin Foundation’s corporate arm, House of Doge, plans to assist 21Shares with marketing the fund.21Shares said Coinbase Custody would be the proposed custodian of its Dogecoin ETF but did not specify a fee, ticker or what stock exchange it would list on.Source: James Seyffart21Shares must also file a 19b-4 filing with the SEC to kickstart the regulator’s approval process for the fund. DOGE currently has a $24.2 billion market cap and is the eighth-largest cryptocurrency by value. It was created in 2013 as a joke and is a fork of Lucky Coin, which itself is a fork of Bitcoin.21Shares’ proposed Dogecoin ETF is the company’s latest effort to expand its spot crypto ETF offerings, which currently includes only a spot Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) fund.The issuer also filed with the SEC in February to launch a spot Polkadot (DOT) ETF and last year, it filed to create a spot XRP (XRP) ETF.Related: Dogecoin millionaires are buying dips as DOGE price eyes 30% rallyThe recent surge in crypto ETF filings reflects a “spaghetti cannon approach” from issuers testing which products the new SEC leadership might approve, Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said in February.“Issuers will try to launch many many different things and see what sticks,” Seyffart said.Seyffart and fellow Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas said in February that there is a 75% chance that the SEC will approve a spot Dogecoin ETF this year, while the betting platform Polymarket currently gives approval odds of 64%.21Shares and House of Doge partner for DOGE funds in Switzerland21Shares also said on April 9 that it partnered with House of Doge to launch a fully backed Dogecoin exchange-traded product on Switzerland’s SIX Swiss Exchange.The 21Shares Dogecoin product will trade under the ticker “DOGE” with a 2.5% fee.21Shares president Duncan Moir said that Dogecoin “has become more than a cryptocurrency: it represents a cultural and financial movement that continues to drive mainstream adoption, and DOGE offers investors a regulated avenue to be part of this exciting project.”Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

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