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AI scammers are now impersonating US government bigwigs, says FBI

Deepfake-assisted hackers are now targeting US federal and state officials by masquerading as senior US officials in the latest brazen phishing campaign to steal sensitive data.

The bad actors have been operating since April, using deepfake voice messages and text messages to masquerade as senior government officials and establish rapport with victims, the FBI said in a May 15 warning.

“If you receive a message claiming to be from a senior US official, do not assume it is authentic,” the agency said.

If US officials’ accounts are compromised, the scam could become far worse because hackers can then “target other government officials, or their associates and contacts, by using the trusted contact information they obtain,” the FBI said.

As part of these scams, the FBI says the hackers are trying to access victims’ accounts through malicious links and directing them to <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-spot-a-fake-crypto-investment-platform-10-red-flags"

Tornado Cash dev Roman Storm trial goes ahead with slight trim

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

Wisconsin Investment Board sold off its Bitcoin ETF stash

The State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which oversees the state’s retirement funds, unloaded its shares in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) during the first quarter, filings show.

The Wisconsin Investment Board reported no spot Bitcoin ETF positions in its 13F filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 15, liquidating all 6,060,351 IBIT shares it reported holding from the previous quarter.

The more than 6 million IBIT shares are worth around $355.6 million at current prices.

SWIB was one of the first state investment funds to provide Bitcoin exposure to US retirees when it bought $164 million worth of Bitcoin ETFs in Q1 2024 — the same quarter the Bitcoin products launched.

Source: Julian Fahrer

The mass sell-off comes only a quarter after SWIB reported additional purchases of IBIT shares in

Legacy forex, payments platforms ‘hate’ stablecoin adoption — Kevin O’Leary

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 legislation

US 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 — <a

Trump’s crypto ties ‘add a certain level of challenge’ to passing bills — Coinbase exec

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

"The world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now" — Eric Trump

There is an ongoing race across the world for Bitcoin accumulation, according to Eric Trump, the second-eldest son of US President Donald Trump. Speaking at a crypto conference in Toronto on May 15, Trump said that from families to government funds, “everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now.”

The remarks came during a panel at Consensus 2025. Sharing the stage with Asher Genoot, the CEO of Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Hut 8, Trump said Bitcoin adoption has been incredible.

“I’m traveling. I’m on a plane. Everybody in the world is trying to hoard Bitcoin right now. Everybody. I hear it from sovereign wealth funds. I hear it from the wealthiest families. I hear from the biggest companies.”Asher Genoot and Eric Trump at Consensus 2025. Source: Cointelegraph

Trump described what he sees as “two races in Bitcoin”: the accumulation race — currently led

Bitcoin traders’ evolving view of BTC’s role in every portfolio bolsters $100K support

Key takeaway:

Bitcoin’s struggles to overtake the $105,000 level as US macroeconomic headwinds remain a challenge.

Steady inflows from institutional investors and the strength of the $100,000 support point to growing confidence in Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) has struggled to break above $105,000 since May 10, leading traders to question whether the bullish momentum has faded. Although BTC managed to reclaim the $104,000 level, demand for leveraged long positions has dropped sharply, as indicated by the decline in the Bitcoin futures premium.

Bitcoin 2-month futures annualized premium. Source: laevitas.ch

On May 14, the annualized Bitcoin futures premium peaked at 7%, but then fell to 5%, which is near the neutral-to-bearish threshold and matches the level seen four weeks ago when BTC traded around $84,500.

This decline in demand for leveraged bullish positions appears to be linked to broader macroeconomic uncertainty, since Bitcoin’s price has been closely following movements in the stock

Asset tokenization expected to speed capital flows, says Chainlink's Nazarov

Asset tokenization is set to accelerate the movement of capital across traditional markets, according to Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov. Speaking with Cointelegraph at Consensus 2025 in Toronto, Nazarov said the shift will boost capital velocity in asset classes such as treasuries, equities, private credit, commercial debt, and real estate.

“I think that there are two sides to this equation. One is the asset, and the other one is the payment. So, you need more high-quality assets onchain, but you also need more frictionless payments that existing institutions can use easily,” Nazarov said on May 14.

The remarks came on the same day Chainlink announced a partnership with Kinexys, a blockchain network for institutional-grade tokenized assets by JP Morgan, and digital asset firm Ondo Finance. Together, the companies will develop payment rails for institutions trading tokenized real-world assets onchain.

The partnership tested the exchange of Ondo’s US Government Treasuries Fund (OUSG), a tokenized

Bitdeer Q1 revenue falls more than 40% year-over-year

Bitdeer Technologies Group reported a 41% year-over-year drop in revenue to $70.1 million for the first quarter of 2025, the Bitcoin miner said on May 15.

The Singaporean company clocked an operating loss of $3.2 million for the quarter, down from a $34.1 million profit during the same period last year, its earnings release said.

However, Bitdeer reported a Q1 net income of more than $400 million, largely driven by gains on convertible notes and warrants issued to stablecoin issuer Tether in 2024.

Bitdeer’s revenue declines come as miners increasingly expand beyond Bitcoin (BTC) mining and pivot toward supplying high-performance computing (HPC) for artificial intelligence applications.

“As we scale self-mining and execute on our ASIC [mining hardware] roadmap, we are also advancing plans for U.S.-based HPC and AI infrastructure,” Matt Kong, Bitdeer’s chief business officer, said in a statement.

But Bitcoin miners are still

FTX estate to start distributing more than $5B on May 30

More than two-and-a-half years after filing for bankruptcy, cryptocurrency exchange FTX is moving forward with repaying users who have not had access to their funds.

In a May 15 notice, the FTX Recovery Trust announced that it would begin disbursing funds to the second group of parties eligible under the exchange’s reorganization plan. Starting on May 30, FTX will send more than $5 billion to creditors “within 1 to 3 business days” through crypto firms BitGo and Kraken.

In accordance with the reorganization plan, FTX said five groups of “convenience classes” would receive between 54% and 120% distribution of assets. The repayment schedule for the next class of creditors will be “announced in due course,” and the debtors were expected to pay up to $16 billion if all claims were filed.

Breakdown of the second round of FTX repayments. Source: Sunil Kavuri

FTX