Samourai Wallet Developer Appeals for Help With $2 Million Legal Debt

“We are entirely out of options. We need to pay off these legal bills and other debts accrued attempting to defend myself. We desperately need your help. Now.”  The case against Rodriguez and Hill, along with Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm, has been closely followed by crypto advocates, many of whom argue they shouldnt be held responsible for the actions of third parties using their software. They also argue that their convictions risk criminalizing open-source privacy tools and restricting privacy rights.  Costs racked up over long legal battle  Rodriguez and Hill were first charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business in April 2024. They initially pleaded not guilty, but in July 2025, they agreed to plead guilty to one charge of operating an illegal money transmitter.  Rodriguez said in an interview with journalist and Bitcoin educator Natalie Brunell last December that he pleaded guilty after crunching the numbers and finding that a conviction would mean significantly more jail time and millions more in legal fees.  Online legal marketplace Lawful estimates a criminal defense lawyer can cost on average $200 to $500 per hour, with retainer fees exceeding $10,000. Rates increase based on the type of case,

05-08

DOJ, CFTC Probe $2.6B Oil Trades Before Trump and Iran Statements: Report

Tech  DOJ, CFTC Probe $2.6B Oil Trades Before Trump and Iran Statements: Report  The Department of Justice (DOJ) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are reportedly examining at least four oil futures trades totaling more than $2.6 billion. The bets were placed before prices fell amid Iran-related statements from President Donald Trump, including military action and ceasefire decisions, as well as remarks from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi about the Strait of Hormuz.  Trading data obtained by ABC News from the London Stock Exchange Group showed several large wagers tied to declining oil prices. On March 23, traders placed more than $500 million in bets about 15 minutes before Trump said he would delay threatened attacks on Irans power grid. On April 7, another $960 million trade came hours before Trump announced a temporary ceasefire.  Rep. Ritchie Torres had already urged federal regulators to review the ceasefire-related trade. In an April 14 letter, he asked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission to open a joint investigation into potential insider trading, market manipulation, and any misuse of confidential government or diplomatic information. Torres stated in the letter:  “According to multiple credible press accounts, traders placed an approximately $950 million bet on

05-08

Analyst Predicts XRP Price Breakout as Whale Inflows to Binance Hit 4-Year Lows

Tech  Analyst Predicts XRP Price Breakout as Whale Inflows to Binance Hit 4-Year Lows  XRP has been moving mostly sideways for almost three months now, but new on-chain data and technical analysis signal bullish sentiment among whales and institutions. A crypto analyst even sees a possible XRP price breakout ahead amid lower selling pressure on Binance.  Whale Selling Pressure at Multi-Year Low on Binance  CryptoQuants 30-day whale inflow indicator (Sum 30D) data shows XRP whale inflows to Binance have reached a four-year low. This indicates a clear shift in sentiment among major investors, with the broader crypto market witnessing notable gains.  Whale inflows to Binance reached 2.6 billion XRP at the beginning of March. Such large inflows are typically associated with an increased likelihood of selling or repositioning.  However, the data currently shows 736 million XRP moving to Binance. The low inflows signal that whales are less inclined to sell or prefer to hold the crypto asset off-exchange during the current bullish market.  XRP Whale Flows to Binance. Source: CryptoQuant  Historically, similar drops in whale transfers to crypto exchanges have preceded supply shock, which often leads to XRP price increases. As CoinGape reported earlier, XRP whales turned positive after months of selling.  XRP price can rise significantly if whale

05-08

Coinbase and AWS bring USDC payments to enterprise AI agents

Tech  Coinbase and AWS bring USDC payments to enterprise AI agents  AWS has integrated Coinbases x402 payment protocol and wallet infrastructure into Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Payments, giving developers a managed way to build AI agents that can discover services, make micropayments, and complete tasks using USDC.  The integration marks one of the clearest moves by a major cloud provider to bring crypto payment rails into enterprise AI agent infrastructure. Coinbase said AgentCore Payments allows AWS developers to build agents that can pay for services on their own while keeping budget controls, compliance checks, and transaction visibility in place.  AgentCore Payments is part of Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, allowing enterprises already building on AWS to add payment capabilities without creating new infrastructure or separate vendor relationships. Coinbase said the system handles wallet authentication, transaction signing, and payments through a single API call, while agents do not receive access to private keys.  The product also gives developers time bound spending limits, compliance controls through Coinbases CDP Facilitator, and logs, metrics, and dashboards across the payment lifecycle.  Coinbase said those features are intended to help enterprises move agentic commerce beyond prototypes by addressing legal, compliance, and audit requirements before agents are allowed to spend money in production.  Brian Foster, head of

05-08

Largest Custody Bank BNY Brings Digital Asset Custody Services to UAE

Tech  Largest Custody Bank BNY Brings Digital Asset Custody Services to UAEThe initiatives first emphasis will be on custody services for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether (ETH).The decision by BNY is indicative of a larger trend among large financial institutions to expand the use of blockchain technology beyond the realm of cryptocurrency trading.  The world-leading custodian, BNY, which is responsible for the custody of $59 trillion in assets, is extending its digital asset custody operations to the UAE via local partners.  Regulatory digital asset infrastructure will be established in Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), a financial free zone in Abu Dhabi that has attracted crypto companies and blockchain projects looking to enter the Middle Eastern market, in collaboration with Finstreet and the ADI Foundation, as stated in a press release issued on Thursday.  According to the press announcement, the initiatives first emphasis will be on custody services for cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether (ETH). Later on, it wants to extend its services to include stablecoins and tokenized assets.  Banking on UAE  The United Arab Emirates is moving into a new stage of its financial growth, according to Hani Kablawi, executive vice chair at BNY. This stage will be marked by more sophisticated digital infrastructure, more global

05-08

Days From Launch: The MOODENG Community Circles Wadoozies $WADZ With 75% LP Locked

The MOODENG community is days from watching a different memecoin go live. Wadoozie ($WADZ) — an Ethereum-native, narrative-driven memecoin — is on track for a CertiK-audited fair launch on May 27, 2026, and traders who came up through the Moo Deng cycle are circling the launch ahead of the gate closing. With 75% of supply locked in a DAO-governed liquidity pool and a renounced contract already viewable on Etherscan, this is a launch the MOODENG audience should at minimum watch.  Why Moo Deng holders fair launch interest is concentrating on $WADZ  It is no secret that memecoin audiences rotate. The MOODENG holder base — a community that watched a single character mobilize a global crowd in 2024 — has, in the months since, learned to read launches more critically than most. The first questions tend to be the same: where is the LP, who controls it, what does the contract say, what does the audit say, and what does the team have left in inventory after launch.  Wadoozies pre-launch publication answers each one in writing. Seventy-five percent of supply is destined for a locked LP that is governed by the DAO rather than the team. Tax is 0/0 at the contract level. The

05-08

Bitget Launches ‘Scan to Pay’ Feature for USDT Payments at Offline Merchants

Tech  Bitget Launches ‘Scan to Pay’ Feature for USDT Payments at Offline MerchantsBitget launches “Scan to Pay,” enabling instant USDT payments via QR codes at offline merchants.The feature rolls out in Southeast Asia and Latin America using existing local payment networks.Bitget says the feature helps users spend stablecoins daily without bank transfers or off-ramping.  Bitget has launched a new “Scan to Pay” feature on Bitget Pay, allowing users to make instant offline payments with USDT by scanning QR codes through the Bitget app.  The feature is initially rolling out across selected markets in Southeast Asia and Latin America. Notably, these regions are where QR-based payments are already widely used, but access to traditional banking services remains uneven.  The company said the system works through existing local payment networks, allowing merchants to accept payments without changing their current infrastructure.  USDT Payments Through QR Codes  According to Bitget, users can set up a payment PIN, scan a merchants QR code, and complete transactions instantly. The platform handles the USDT conversion and settlement process in the background. This removes the need for manual crypto off-ramping, bank transfers, or separate currency conversions.  Notably, the payment flow resembles familiar local QR payment systems already common in many emerging markets.  Tether USDT remains one

05-08

IONQ Stock Forecast: Quantum Revenue Jumps 755% as Demand Surges

Tech  IONQ Stock Forecast: Quantum Revenue Jumps 755% as Demand Surges  in early market activity, slipping about 2.4% in early morning despite the company posting explosive first-quarter growth. The pullback follows a strong earnings report that sharply exceeded Wall Street expectations but also reignited investor concerns around profitability and long-term execution.  Overall, IONQ has been wonderful, with a 22% surge in the last 7 days.  Quantum Revenue Growth Turns Heads Across Wall Street  IonQ delivered first-quarter revenue of $64.67 million, crushing analyst estimates of roughly $49.7 million. Even more striking, revenue surged 755% year over year, marking one of the fastest growth rates currently seen in the technology sector.  The company also reported an adjusted loss of 0.34 per share, slightly better than expectations for a 0.35 loss. While profitability remains elusive, investors focused heavily on the scale of revenue acceleration and expanding commercial demand.  What fueled the massive jump? IonQ pointed to growing system sales, rising cloud utilization, and strong demand for its Tempo quantum platform. Commercial customers accounted for nearly 60% of total revenue, while international clients represented about 35%.  The company also revealed a 554% increase in remaining performance obligations, which climbed to $470 million. That figure gives investors a clearer picture of future contracted

05-08

Can Silver Reclaim Its $121 All-Time High Before May Ends?

Tech  Can Silver Reclaim Its $121 All-Time High Before May Ends?  Silver (XAG/USD) trades near $79 after a 3% intraday jump cleared a multi-month resistance shelf, with the dollar simultaneously sliding inside its own falling channel.  The setup combines a structural pattern, an inverse macro driver weakening in lockstep, and a futures positioning read that hints at a quiet but persistent bullish lean. Whether silver can chase its $121.65 all-time high depends on which signal wins out.  Silver Builds Continuation Setup After 167% Surge  Silver surged 167% from its October 2025 low at $45 to an all-time high of $121 in late January. Since that peak, the metal has traded inside a falling channel, a structural pattern bounded by two parallel descending trendlines.  Falling channels are not always bearish. When they form after an extended rally, they often resolve as continuation patterns. The structure marks a pause before the prior trend resumes.  Silver Falling Channel Pattern: TradingView  Todays session pushed silver about 3% higher to roughly $79. The move broke above a multi-month resistance shelf that had capped every prior rally attempt. The resistance shelf is revealed later in this piece. For now, the next hurdle would be the upper trendline of the channel. If that breaks, bullish

05-08

Tether launches on-device medical AI that outperforms Googles models in benchmark tests

Tech  Tether launches on-device medical AI that outperforms Googles models in benchmark tests  Tethers AI Research Group has released QVAC MedPsy-1.7B and MedPsy-4B, specialized text-only medical language models built to run directly on low-power devices such as smartphones and wearables.  According to the team, these models outperform some big medical AI systems, including Googles, on various benchmarks, and perform comparably to much larger systems on medical reasoning and knowledge tasks while maintaining full local execution and privacy.  Traditional AI systems in healthcare rely on large cloud-hosted models, requiring sensitive data like patient records and diagnostic inputs to be transmitted to external servers, creating privacy and compliance risks. This architecture is increasingly under pressure as the healthcare AI sector is projected to grow from roughly $36 billion today to potentially over $500 billion by 2033.  Tethers team says QVAC MedPsy challenges the scaling paradigm by focusing on efficiency.  The 1.7B model is smartphone-friendly. This tiny version scored 62.62 across seven standard medical benchmarks, beating Googles MedGemma-1.5-4B-it by over 11 points despite being less than half its size, according to researchers. It also outperformed MedGemma 27B in real-world clinical tasks like HealthBench Hard.  The 4B version model hit 70.54 on the same tests, surpassing MedGemma-27B, a model nearly seven

05-08
1
...
699701
...
1000