Autor Cointelegraph By Jesse Coghlan

US Senator Thom Tillis says he will push the Senate Banking Committee to advance the stalled crypto market structure bill, as the text of the bill has made progress and is ready for another vote.Tillis, a key Senate Banking Republican, told reporters on Wednesday that he would ask Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott “to move forward with scheduling a markup” when the Senate is back in session on May 11.“I think that we’ve made a lot of progress,” Tillis said. “But at the end of the day, until you have a forcing mechanism of a markup, everybody that really doesn’t want it done is going to have one more thing that they want to talk about, and I think it’s time to get it before the committee, move it forward.”The Senate’s crypto market structure bill would lay out how the US’s two most influential financial market regulators would oversee crypto. The House passed its version of the bill, the CLARITY Act, in July, but the Senate’s version has been plagued by delays as lawmakers and lobbyists have sought to edit provisions.Thom Tillis holding a press gaggle with reporters on Wednesday. Source: Chase WilliamsThe Senate Banking Committee delayed the bill’s markup in January after major crypto lobbyist Coinbase pulled its support over a provision banning crypto exchanges from paying stablecoin yields.Banking lobbyists have fought to keep the provision in the legislation, arguing that banning third parties from paying stablecoin yields closes a perceived loophole in the GENIUS Act, which prohibits stablecoin issuers from paying yield.“I believe we’ve heard the concerns [and] addressed a lot of the concerns of the bank,” Tillis said. “There may be a few more that we can get there if they want to come and work in good faith; otherwise, I’m going to encourage the chair to move forward with the markup.”Related: Key US senator lifts block on Trump’s Fed pick Kevin WarshTillis added that he hoped to publicly release the legislative text at least four days before the markup, after crypto and banking stakeholders are given a preview.Other provisions at issue in the bill, which senators have worked to resolve, concern ethics and protecting software developers.On Tuesday, Politico reported that Tillis said the crypto bill would “need to address the law enforcement concerns” around a provision that would protect crypto software developers from prosecution if others commit illegal activity on their platforms.Tillis told reporters on Wednesday that he was “generally in support” of the progress Senator Cynthia Lummis had made on the provision.On Monday, Tillis backed a demand popular among Senate Banking Democrats, saying he wouldn’t support the bill unless it included ethics provisions limiting how government officials can use and promote crypto.“There has to be ethics language in the bill before it leaves the Senate, or I’ll go from one of the people working on negotiating it to voting against it,” Tillis said.Magazine: Will the CLARITY Act be good — or bad — for DeFi?Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Shares in the Bitcoin-buying company Twenty One Capital climbed in after-hours trading on Wednesday after its majority shareholder, Tether, proposed a three-way merger with two other crypto companies.Tether said Wednesday that it intends to vote in favor of a proposed merger between Twenty One Capital and Bitcoin payments company Strike, followed by a proposed merger of the combined company with Bitcoin mining firm Elektron Energy.Tether added that if the mergers go through, “Strike would be contributing a profitable financial services platform, global distribution and regulatory infrastructure and Elektron would be adding large-scale Bitcoin mining infrastructure, operational depth and proven execution capabilities.”Shares in Twenty One Capital (XXI) ended trading on Wednesday down 1.7% at $7.83, but jumped to a high of $9.28 after hours before settling at $8.35 for a gain of 6.6% after the bell.Shares in Twenty One Capital on Wednesday surged after hours. Source: Google FinanceThe company has the second-largest Bitcoin holdings among public companies and its share price has slid over 10.5% so far this year alongside Bitcoin’s decline.Tether did not share the terms of the mergers or a timeline for their completion, but proposed that Elektron founder and CEO Raphael Zagury serve as president of the new company.It added that Jack Mallers, the founder and CEO of Strike and co-founder and CEO of Twenty One Capital, would also serve in an executive role.“The proposed leadership structure is intended to combine Mallers’ product, brand, and consumer Bitcoin leadership with Zagury’s capital markets, operating, and execution experience,” Tether said.Related: Tether launches open-source mining framework to unify Bitcoin infrastructureTwenty One Capital went public in December through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners and came to market with holdings of 43,500 Bitcoin and an aim of increasing its Bitcoin per share.Tether said if the mergers are successful, Twenty One would move “beyond treasury exposure alone and toward a platform with operating businesses, recurring revenue opportunities, and long-term Bitcoin accumulation capabilities.”Twenty One Capital currently holds 43,514 Bitcoin and is behind only Strategy, Inc. in terms of public company Bitcoin holdings, which holds 818,334 Bitcoin.Magazine: Adam Back says current demand is ‘almost’ enough to send Bitcoin to $1MCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday sued the state of Wisconsin in the agency’s latest effort to assert jurisdiction over prediction markets after the state sued multiple platforms.The CFTC said in a statement that it filed the lawsuit against Wisconsin “in response to the state’s lawsuits against Kalshi, Polymarket, Crypto.com, Robinhood, and Coinbase, five CFTC-regulated prediction markets.”“States cannot circumvent the clear directive of Congress,” CFTC Chairman Michael Selig said. “Our message to Wisconsin is the same as to New York, Arizona, and others: if you interfere with the operation of federal law in regulating financial markets, we will sue you.”It is the agency’s fifth lawsuit against a US state that seeks to halt action against prediction markets. The CFTC sued New York on Friday and filed lawsuits against Arizona, Connecticut, and Illinois earlier this month after the states sued prediction market platforms.Michael Selig speaking on stage at Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas on Monday. Source: YouTubeWisconsin sued the five companies on Thursday, and like many US state authorities, argued that prediction markets offering sports-related event contracts are illegal betting that requires state gaming licenses.It is an assertion the platforms and the CFTC have rebuffed in the past, arguing the contracts are regulated only under federal law.The CFTC argued in its latest complaint, filed alongside the Justice Department’s Civil Division in a Wisconsin federal court, that it has “exclusive jurisdiction” over the event contracts on prediction markets, regulated as designated contract markets under federal law.Related: With no bipartisan leadership, CFTC won’t ‘slow down‘ on rulemaking“Wisconsin’s attempt to criminalize and shut down federally regulated markets intrudes on the exclusive federal scheme Congress designed to oversee national swaps markets,” the CFTC wrote in its complaint.The agency asked the court to rule that state gambling laws do not apply to CFTC-regulated designated contract markets and issue a permanent injunction prohibiting Wisconsin from taking action against prediction markets.The CFTC’s complaint also named Wisconsin Governor Anthony Evers, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and the Wisconsin Gaming Division and its administrator, John Dillett.The Wisconsin Department of Justice, the state’s Division of Gaming and Governor Evers’ office were contacted for comment.Magazine: How to fix suspected insider trading on Polymarket and KalshiCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

A Manhattan federal judge has denied FTX CEO and co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion for a new trial, rejecting his claim that there is new evidence.Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw Bankman-Fried’s trial in 2023 and sentenced him to 25 years in prison in early 2024, wrote in an order on Tuesday that Bankman-Fried’s claim of new evidence and witnesses was baseless.“This motion appears to be one part of a plan to rescue his reputation that Bankman-Fried hatched and even committed to writing after FTX declared bankruptcy but before he was indicted,” Judge Kaplan wrote.Bankman-Fried in February had requested a new trial to be overseen by a different judge, making the rare move of filing a motion without consulting his lawyers and while an appeals court was considering his conviction and sentence.On Wednesday, Bankman-Fried asked to withdraw his request, telling Judge Kaplan he didn’t believe he would “get a fair hearing on this topic in front of you,” which the judge denied.Sam Bankman-Fried appeared on a podcast in March 2025 while being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Source: YouTubeIn his order, Judge Kaplan wrote that Bankman-Fried’s claim that three former FTX executives could counter the government’s arguments that FTX was insolvent was “baseless on multiple independently sufficient levels.”“None of the witnesses, for example, is ‘newly discovered.’ Bankman-Fried well before trial knew all three of them and purportedly knew also what he hoped they would say were they to testify,” Kaplan wrote.Bankman-Fried argued that two former FTX executives who didn’t testify — Ryan Salame, the former CEO of FTX’s Bahamian arm and Daniel Chapsky, FTX’s former head of data science — could counter the government’s claims about the exchange’s financial health.Salame separately pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws and operating an illegal money-transmitting business. He was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in May 2024.Related: Sam Bankman-Fried ramps up Trump support following Ellison’s releaseHe also argued that Nishad Singh, FTX’s former engineering lead, who cut a plea deal with prosecutors to avoid jail and testified against Bankman-Fried at trial, changed his testimony “following threats from the government.”Judge Kaplan said Bankman-Fried could have sought to compel testimony from the trio but didn’t, and his claim that their absence or decision to testify against him was a result of government threats “is wildly conspiratorial and entirely contradicted by the record.”Bankman-Fried was found guilty on seven criminal charges related to fraud and money laundering, with a jury finding he illegally transferred billions of dollars of FTX customer money to the trading firm Alameda Research to make risky trades that contributed to the exchange’s collapse.Bankman-Fried is being held in a federal prison in Lompoc, California.Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

US President Donald Trump has softened his stance on prediction markets just days after he bemoaned the surging interest and popularity of the betting platforms.“I don’t know. I know some people who are very smart. They like it,” Trump told reporters in Florida on Saturday after he was asked about his earlier comments, in which he said he didn’t support prediction markets. “They disagree, but they like it.”“A lot of other countries are doing it, and when the other countries do it, we get left out in the cold if we don’t do it,” he said.Donald Trump speaking to reporters in Florida before departing for Washington, DC. Source: YouTubeTrump’s latest comments came after he told reporters at the White House on Thursday that he was “not happy” with prediction markets in response to a question about well-timed bets on events linked to the Iran war.“Well, you know, the whole world, unfortunately, has become somewhat of a casino,” Trump said on Thursday. “And you look at what’s going on all over the world and Europe, and every place they’re doing these betting things. I was never much in favor of it. I don’t like it conceptually, but it is what it is.”“I think that I’m not happy with any of that stuff, but they have all these different sites of predictive markets. It’s a crazy world. It’s a much different world than it was,” he added.Prediction markets such as the popular Polymarket and Kalshi have surged in use over the past year, with the two platforms together seeing a record $23.6 billion in trading volumes in March, according to Token Terminal.Related: CFTC sues New York over bid to apply gambling laws to prediction marketsTrump’s son Donald Trump Jr. invested in Polymarket in August and joined the company’s advisory board. He is also an adviser to rival Kalshi, taking on the role in January 2025.President Trump could also soon have an interest in prediction markets. His company, Trump Media, said in October that it would roll out prediction markets in partnership with Crypto.com on its flagship social media site, Truth Social.Trump divested his stake in Trump Media upon entering office, transferring his shares to a trust for which Trump Jr. is the sole trustee.Magazine: Should users be allowed to bet on war and death in prediction markets?Cointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.