🐳 Daily Edition: Tornado Cash Creator Found Guilty, ETH Has a Michael Saylor?

Relatively slow day in the crypto markets as things continue to recover from last weekend’s sell off, with Bitcoin trading at $115k at time of writing. A scary headline towards the end of the day in which Trump proclaimed semiconductors entering the US would be subject to a 100% tariff threatened to send us back down, however positive after-hours movements in equities show the market doesn’t believe this to be as destructive as it sounds. Soon after the announcement, the White House clarified that companies manufacturing in the US (including Nvidia) would be exempt, which likely explains the positive reaction.

It’s also worth mentioning that Tornado Cash creator Roman Storm was found guilty on a money transmitting charge today, however the jury could not come to a decision on the laundering charges. For those who don’t know, Tornado Cash is a privacy protocol which helps to obfuscate the origin of funds sent to crypto wallets. While the design is not inherently illegal, it was of course used by people with illicit intentions with the blame falling on the founders of Tornado. The case began in 2023 and has since garnered the attention and support of many of the leaders of top crypto protocols, including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, on the grounds that privacy is a basic human right. Storm will now have a chance to appeal this verdict which we assume will end up happening — whether or not the appeal will be successful, this is a seminal case for the crypto industry and is absolutely something we should be paying attention to.

That’s a lot of ETH!

The Beluga intern has been hard at work gathering all the most important crypto news stories so you have them in one place!

The Majors

• Strategy, Trump Media helped absorb Galaxy’s $9 billion Bitcoin sale

• Why Ethereum retail investors remain ‘sidelined’— even as institutions buy billions

Alt Coins and Stocks

• Coinbase to raise $2B in convertible notes as COIN sags in pre-market

Regulatory

• Tornado Cash verdict sets off a storm of protest as crypto advocates push for a potential appeal

• Industry leaders cheer liquid staking’s SEC green light, opening doors for institutional adoption

Random

• Unlucky trader fumbles $36 million on Troll Solana meme coin

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