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Senate Democrat Says He’s Looking Into Trump’s Crypto Businesses

The leading Senate Democrat on a panel tasked with investigating corruption and mismanagement is scrutinizing U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent crypto activities and whether they’re part of a «pay-to-play scheme to provide access to the Presidency to the highest bidder.»
Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations — a panel housed within the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs — wrote letters to Bill Zanker of Fight Fight Fight LLC and Zach Witkoff, a co-founder of World Liberty Financial on Tuesday, asking them a series of questions about the ownership and investment structure for Trump-affiliated entities, including Fight Fight Fight LLC (the company behind the TRUMP memecoin), CIC Digital LLC (which issued Trump’s NFTs and co-owns Fight Fight Fight), Celebration Cards LLC (another entity affiliated with Trump’s NFTs) and DTTM Operations LLC (which manages Trump’s IP rights), as well as World Liberty Financial and its affiliated entities.
«The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is conducting a preliminary inquiry into potential conflicts of interest and violations of the law from President Trump’s cryptocurrency ventures … and associated businesses’ financial dealings with foreign nationals, foreign governments and other cryptocurrency firms,» the letters both said, with one pointing to World Liberty Financial and the other to the $TRUMP memecoin.
The letters went on to say that the businesses «may be enabling the violation of government ethics requirements,» before posing a number of questions for the companies’ respective executives.
These questions include asking how the companies identify or block investments from foreign governments, how much revenue they’ve generated and whether individuals facing prosecution or investigations can participate.
The letters also ask the executives to produce records tied to the Trump-affiliated crypto businesses.
Because Democrats are currently the minority party in the Senate, Blumenthal does not have subpoena power unless his Republican counterpart, Sen. Ron Johnson, also signs on. A spokesperson for Johnson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Democrats have sounded the alarm over Trump’s crypto businesses in recent days. Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Maxine Waters, who leads her party on the House Financial Services Committee, objected to a joint hearing with the House Agriculture Committee to address market structure legislation and instead hosted her own hearing focused on these crypto tie-ups.
A weekend statement from Sen. Ruben Gallego and a handful of other Democrats saying the lawmakers would not vote for the Senate’s stablecoin bill also seems to stem from Trump’s crypto ties — in particular the announcement by Eric Trump that Abu Dhabi-based investment firm MGX would use the Trump-affiliated USD1 stablecoin to close a $2 billion investment into Binance.
Sen. Chris Murphy also introduced a bill Tuesday which would ban the U.S. president and other senior government officials from issuing memecoins or other financial assets.
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UK’s FCA Seeks Views on Stablecoins, Crypto Custody to Prevent Firm Failures

The U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is seeking additional views on its upcoming stablecoins regime, it said on Wednesday.
«In support of the opportunities stablecoins present to financial services and the broader economy, the FCA will explore adding a specific focus on stablecoins to its innovation services in the coming months,» the FCA’s statement said.
The FCA’s proposed rules are meant to ensure stablecoins maintain their value and seek to reduce the likelihood of stablecoin and crypto custody companies failing.
Stablecoins have been something regulators have been watching carefully following the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD in 2022 that resulted in investors losing out on their life savings.
The FCA has been establishing its new crypto regime since 2023. In 2023 it published a discussion paper with proposals for a stablecoins regime. The regulator has since upped its efforts to regulate the sector by releasing a series of discussion papers for the industry and the U.K. government is working on establishing new legislation to ensure the country’s regulators have all the powers they need to launch their new regimes for the digital asset sector.
The FCA will be working with the Bank of England to regulate stablecoins.
«For those stablecoins that expect to operate at systemic scale, the Bank of England will publish a complementary consultation paper later this year, including responding to industry feedback around allowing some return on backing assets,» Sarah Breeden, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England said.
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Bitcoin and Web3 Wallet Firm Ledger Brings ‘Crypto Life’ Visa Card to U.S. Users

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet firm Ledger has launched its Crypto Life (CL) Visa card in the U.S., offering users 1% cashback in bitcoin (BTC) or USDC on purchases and the ability to directly deposit paychecks into the on-chain card account via bank transfer.
Ledger’s CL Visa card is facilitated by fiat-to-on-chain card enabler Baanx, which also provides self-custody crypto cards for the likes of MetaMask, Tools for Humanity and most recently wallet firm Exodus.
Big card networks Mastercard and Visa are aligning themselves with the self-custodial crypto world and the rapid growth in areas like stablecoin payments. Data on CL card usage shows household purchases dominated crypto card usage at 63% of total transactions, with entertainment and fashion categories showing the strongest growth.
Jean-Francois Rochet, EVP of Consumer Services at Ledger, said the collaboration brings the CL card to millions of users in the U.S. with attractive cashback features for bitcoin holders. “Living the crypto life means having ownership, access and real world utility over your digital assets,” he said in a statement.
“The CL Card, designed for Ledger, is a step toward mainstream, non-custodial crypto payments—right in your pocket”, said Simon Jones, Chief Commercial Officer of Baanx.
The CL Card will be available in the U.S. (excluding New York and Vermont) on June 30, 2025.
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VivoPower Raises $121M to Launch XRP Treasury Strategy With Saudi Royal Backing

VivoPower International (VVPR), a Nasdaq-listed energy company, said on Wednesday it has secured $121 million in a private share placement to fund its pivot to digital asset treasury focusing on XRP XRP, the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
The raise was led by Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Abdulaziz Al Saud, investing $100 million, a spokesperson to the company told CoinDesk. The company sold 20 million ordinary shares priced at $6.05 per share.
Adam Traidman, a former Ripple executive who led the SBI Ripple Asia, is joining the company as chairman of the board of advisors, according to the press release. Ripple is an enterprise-focused blockchain service provider closely related to the XRP Ledger.
VivoPower shares surged as much as 26% on the news before giving back some of the gains. Recently, they were up over 11%, trading around $6.75.
The move is the latest example of public firms raising money to purchase and add digital assets to their treasuries, a playbook popularized by Michael Saylor’s Strategy (MSTR) that has become the largest corporate holder of bitcoin BTC. While BTC has been the most sought-after asset among these firms, recent newcomers like DeFi Development and SharpLink Gaming directed their focus to Solana’s SOL SOL and Ethereum’s ether ETH, respectively.
VivoPower, founded in 2014, aims to be the first publicly traded company with a crypto treasury strategy centered around XRP. It also plans to spin off its legacy business.
«After reviewing a number of listed vehicles seeking to embrace a digital asset treasury model, we selected VivoPower given its strategic focus on XRP and its objective to contribute to building out of the XRPL ecosystem,» Prince Abdulaziz said in a statement. «We have been investors in the digital asset sector for a decade and have been long-term holders of XRP.»
Read more: Dubai Unveils Real Estate Tokenization Platform on XRP Ledger Amid $16B Initiative
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