President Donald Trump has threatened bigger import tariffs against the European Union (EU) and Canada if they worked together «to do economic harm» to the U.S.

«If the European Union works with Canada in order to do economic harm to the USA, large scale Tariffs, far larger than currently planned, will be placed on them both in order to protect the best friend that each of those two countries has ever had!” Trump said in a late Wednesday night post on Truth Social.

Financial markets, however, remain steady in the wake of the new threat, with BTC in stasis below $88,000. Germany’s DAX futures fell 0.3% while their Wall Street counterparts traded flat to positive.

The resilience in the market likely stems from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent indication that the inflationary pressures resulting from tariffs could be transitory.

BlackRock is looking to add more people to its digital asset team as the industry grows in popularity among Wall Street firms.

Since the inauguration of U.S. President Donald Trump, big names in finance have taken several steps to expand their presence in crypto. While BlackRock has long been a pioneer in the space, especially among traditional financial banks, the asset manager seems to have more in store.

Four roles on BlackRock’s digital asset team were added to its website on Wednesday, including Director of Digital Assets, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Vice President for Digital Asset and ETF Legal Counsel and Associate for Digital Asset.

According to the job description, three of the roles are based in New York and another one in Atlanta. The descriptions have otherwise been kept fairly broad and don’t give away any clues regarding what BlackRock might be looking to work on in the future.

For the role of the legal counsel, the company is seeking somebody who can help with future crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF) launches. BlackRock has so far issued two spot ETF products, the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHE).

Other issuers have applied to launch funds for several other crypto assets, including Solana (SOL), XRP, and Litecoin (LTC). BlackRock has not announced any plans to do the same.

The asset manager is also strongly focused on tokenization, a sector in which it has quickly become a leading force.

The firm’s tokenized money market fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has drawn in $1.7 billion since its introduction in 2023, making it by far the largest tokenized fund on the market currently.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unicoin CEO Alex Konanykhin said he’s asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to pull its investigation against the crypto operation and hasn’t yet received a response.

Unicoin represented a final shot against the industry from previous Chair Gary Gensler’s SEC, which informed the firm in an official notice late last year that the regulator intended to accuse it of fraud, deceptive practices and handling unregistered securities. The investigation was announced in the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration in December, before the SEC’s leadership was taken over by those selected by crypto fan President Donald Trump.

The CEO, who has watched a dozen other crypto companies let off the hook of their enforcement actions by the agency’s new management, told CoinDesk he wrote a March 17 letter to the agency’s new Crypto Task Force, asking about the investigation.

«I seek your guidance on the best way to address this abuse of power and bring it to an end,» Konanykhin wrote in the letter, a copy of which has been reviewed by CoinDesk. He requested the matter be terminated and that the conduct of the enforcement official involved with the case at the agency be reviewed, because of his «willingness to weaponize the SEC’s authority for political purposes.»

A spokesperson for the SEC declined to comment on Unicoin’s status on Wednesday. A Unicoin spokesperson told CoinDesk on Tuesday that the company «remains in the final stages of the SEC review process. As of now, we have not received any new updates or formal feedback from the SEC regarding our registration. We are fully committed to compliance and transparency, and we continue to work toward securing the necessary approvals for our planned offerings.»

The CEO believes his company, which suggests investors can see up to 8,000% returns, was targeted by agency harassment last year, he said in an interview with CoinDesk in Washington.

«They demanded from us to promise not to go public in the United States, not to ICO, not to raise funds,» he said. «So I packed my bags and moved to Europe to resume business.»

He said the election of Trump and the president’s promises to make the U.S. the global crypto capital made him come back to New York from Switzerland, with an intent to go public here.

«We thought the war was over, and we said to the SEC, ‘Hey, we’re resuming our activity,» Konanykhin said. At that point, the agency announced it intended to target the company with civil charges.

Konanykhin noted that the regulator had accused them of violating securities laws with an airdrop. Konanykhin argued that it’s a common marketing strategy seen in many crypto assets, and is «what the president of the United States is doing with his memecoin.»

«It’s embarrassing that the war on crypto still continues,» he said. If the agency continues its war on crypto by pursuing Unicoin, «I think so many observers are going to be astonished.»

Unicoin started as an effort to create a «more transparent and reliable alternative» to Bitcoin in the U.S. (which, the Unicoin website said, has returned 9 million percent to investors over the last 10 years). He said some analysts believe bitcoin was «created by Chinese intelligence, but nobody really knows by whom.»

«I’m elated by the opportunity to participate in making American the crypto capital of the planet as the president pledged he wants to do, even though it’s highly annoying to still have the legacy persecution from the SEC,» Konanykhin said.

Meanwhile, he said, «we are preparing actively for going public.»