Enforcement Actions

The WLFI token dropped 8% amid U.S. Senators' concerns over the UAE's stake in World Liberty and potential national security risks. Despite scrutiny and calls for a CFIUS review, the company continues to grow, expanding into the forex market with a new platform.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that 31-year-old Chinese national Liao Fei was sentenced to 40 months in prison for involvement in cryptocurrency investment scams and money laundering. He is also required to pay back over $2.3 million and compensate victims with $2.8 million. He and his accomplices carried out the so-called "pig-butchering" scams through shell companies.

Democratic lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives requested an investigation into World Liberty Financial, a DeFi project linked to the Trump family, citing concerns about conflicts of interest and national security risks associated with a $500 million deal with the UAE royalty.

_Coordinated exchange freezes forced the return of 320 BTC, exposing weaknesses in law enforcement crypto custody systems._ South Korean prosecutors have recovered roughly $21.4 million worth of Bitcoin previously stolen from official custody. Funds were taken last year after investigators

Bubblemaps reports that Hayden Davis, a suspect in the LIBRA token scam, is the second-largest investor in Pump.fun's private round, investing 50 million USDC and selling for profit on the first day of listing. The address is clearly linked to Hayden Davis's on-chain transactions, and it is currently unclear whether Pump.fun's official team is aware.

Polymarket recently filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts, claiming that the regulatory authority over prediction markets belongs to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) rather than the state government. This lawsuit could impact the regulatory framework for prediction markets in the United States, determining whether they can bypass state gambling laws or must adhere to individual state regulations.

On Feb. 18, Donald Trump Jr. defended his family’s pivot to cryptocurrency, describing it as a survival tactic against a “Ponzi scheme” banking system that had deplatformed them. Mounting Political Scrutiny Donald Trump Jr. issued a defiant defense of his family’s digital asset ventures on

Odaily Planet Daily reports that the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office in South Korea has recovered approximately $21.4 million worth of Bitcoin stolen from its custody last year. The assets were originally seized from a gambling platform and were stolen in August last year after investigators accidentally accessed a phishing website that exposed the seed phrase. Due to the prosecution blocking transactions on the related wallets, making it difficult to liquidate the assets, the hacker returned 320.8 Bitcoins to the official wallet on Tuesday. Currently, the South Korean prosecutors have transferred the recovered Bitcoin to a local exchange for safekeeping, and the hacker's identity remains unknown.

Sam Bankman-Fried claims new testimony suggests FTX remained solvent during its collapse, despite an $8 billion liquidity gap. He seeks a retrial, citing evidence of potential customer repayments and alleged prosecutorial misconduct.

_Coin Center urges the Senate to advance the BRCA bill to protect crypto developers who do not control user funds from prosecution._ Coin Center has urged the US Senate Banking Committee to advance legislation that would shield crypto developers from prosecution when they do not control user fun

The prediction markets in the United States have rapidly emerged in recent years, attracting the attention of regulatory agencies. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins emphasized that the legal status of prediction markets as "gambling" or "financial instruments" remains controversial, especially for contracts involving events such as elections. The overlapping regulatory authority requires collaboration between federal and state governments, and whether clear rules will be established in the future remains to be seen.

Nevada gaming regulators have filed a lawsuit against prediction market platform Kalshi. While seeking to block its operations in the state. The case filed after a federal appeals court rejected Kalshi’s request to stop the action. State officials say the platform offers unlicensed wagering that

The US prediction market giant Kalshi has been sued in Nevada for allegedly operating unlicensed sports betting, with the state claiming that its business poses a threat to legal gambling. Kalshi argues that federal law applies, sparking a fierce dispute between federal and state authorities, which could have a profound impact on the future development of the US gambling market.

Nevada regulators have sued prediction market platform Kalshi, seeking a court order to ban its unlicensed sports betting operations. Kalshi's trading volume has surged, with this year's Super Bowl Sunday trading volume being 27 times higher than last year. The company has requested a federal court to hear the case, arguing that only federal law applies.

PANews February 18 News, according to the U.S. Department of Justice official website, a U.S. man from Glendale was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison for engaging in illegal activities such as selling various drugs on the dark web marketplace and accepting cryptocurrency. Law enforcement agencies disclosed that the related illegal transactions were settled entirely in cryptocurrency. This operation is part of a cross-agency effort to combat transnational crime, drug trafficking networks, and human smuggling. The goal is to systematically target criminal organizations and their supply chains that rely on the dark web for operations.

The Ninth Circuit denied Kalshi's emergency stay request, allowing Nevada to pursue civil enforcement actions against the prediction market operator. Kalshi may appeal to the Supreme Court to block enforcement, as the case raises questions about federal vs. state regulatory authority.

The Epstein files reveal a 2018 meeting where Gary Gensler, then an MIT professor, was set to discuss digital currencies with Epstein, linking him to coordinated crypto regulatory actions during his SEC tenure, including the Ripple case.