Hello traders! Let’s take a closer look at BTCUSD !

Recently, we’re seeing clear signs of a potential reversal after BTCUSD formed a double top pattern, and the EMA 34 and EMA 89 have crossed each other.

Breaking the support level around the previous key zone has strengthened the bearish momentum, potentially triggering a further decline towards the next support level near 103,500 USD.

However, I’m also watching for possible reversal signals at these support levels. If BTCUSD holds above 103,500 USD and forms a higher low, we may see the bulls make a comeback.

Key Levels to Watch:

Resistance: 114,000 USD
Support: 103,500 USD
EMA Crossover: Strong Bearish Signal

Stay alert and be ready for potential market shifts! Will the bulls step in at 103,500 USD? Or will the bears continue to dominate?
Let me know your thoughts and happy trading!

Market Context
Bitcoin recently rejected from a major resistance area and has since been retracing downward, finding temporary support inside a bullish Fair Value Gap. The market is currently in a corrective phase, with buyers attempting to defend lower levels while sellers look for optimal positions to reload shorts. This environment shows a classic tug-of-war between these two forces as price moves between supply and demand zones.

Consolidation and Current Phase
Although the prior consolidation has been broken, the current price action can still be described as corrective, with intraday structure forming lower highs. The bullish Fair Value Gap beneath price has been respected so far, creating a temporary base. However, the path remains complex, as the market has unfilled imbalances both above and below.

Bearish Retest Scenario
One key scenario involves a retracement toward the bearish Fair Value Gap near 117K, which also aligns with the 0.702 Fibonacci retracement level. This confluence makes it a high-probability area for sellers to step in again. A rejection from that zone would likely resume the downtrend, with the next logical target being the deeper unfilled bullish Fair Value Gap around 110K. This zone acts as a magnet for price due to the inefficiency left behind during the last rally.

Bullish Defense Scenario
For bulls to regain control, the current Fair Value Gap at 114K must hold, followed by a strong move that invalidates the lower-high structure. Such a move would need to break above the 117K bearish FVG with conviction. Only then could momentum shift back to the upside, opening the door for another challenge of the higher resistance zones.

Final Words
Patience and precision are key when dealing with setups like this. Let the market come to your level — and react with intent.

If you found this breakdown helpful, a like is much appreciated! Let me know in the comments what you think or if you’re watching the same zones.

A new FinCEN advisory just dropped, and the numbers are staggering:

Between 2020 and 2024, US banks handled an estimated $312 billion in laundered money tied to Chinese networks. That averages out to over $62 billion a year flowing through the US financial system — not exactly pocket change.

How It Works

Chinese laundering networks have essentially partnered with Mexico-based drug cartels.

Cartels need to wash US dollar drug proceeds.

Chinese gangs desperately want US dollars to get around strict Chinese currency controls.

Result? A symbiotic black-market bromance.

FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki summed it up: these networks don’t just wash drug money — they’re also knee-deep in human trafficking, healthcare fraud, elder abuse, and a cool $53.7 billion in shady real estate deals.

But Wait… Isn’t Crypto Supposed to Be the Big Bad? 🧐

Here’s where things get spicy: despite these massive numbers, politicians ( Elizabeth Warren) keep pointing fingers at crypto as the main villain in money laundering.

Warren has repeatedly warned that criminals are “increasingly turning to cryptocurrency.”

And yes, illicit activity exists in crypto… but perspective matters.

According to Chainalysis:

Illicit crypto activity over the last five years = $189 billion.

US banks laundered $312 billion in just four years — and that’s only from Chinese networks.

For even more context:

Global money laundering (UN estimate): > $2 trillion every year.

Crypto’s illicit volume: < 1% of total crypto transactions (per TRM Labs).

The Takeaway

Traditional banks remain the real laundromats for global crime, while crypto is often scapegoated because it’s new, flashy, and easier to demonize.

FinCEN’s findings highlight a broader truth: organized crime runs on fiat pipelines, not blockchains.

What do you think — is crypto unfairly treated, or does the space still need stricter guardrails to avoid becoming the next $312B headline?

Key takeaways:

️ Bitcoin miners sold $485 million worth of BTC between Aug. 11–23 — their fastest offloading pace in 9 months.

Despite the selling, Bitcoin’s network hashrate and fundamentals remain rock-solid.

The Sell-Off Story

Bitcoin (BTC $111,254) has clawed its way back above $112K, rebounding from a six-week low earlier this week. But traders aren’t entirely at ease: miners have been selling coins at a pace not seen since December 2024.

In the past 12 days, miners dumped 4,207 BTC (~$485M). For context:

Between April–July, miners were in accumulation mode, adding 6,675 BTC.

Now, balances stand at 63,736 BTC (~$7.1B).

While these flows are peanuts compared to the likes of MicroStrategy or Metaplanet, miner activity tends to spark outsized FUD because it’s seen as a barometer of confidence (or stress).

Why Sell Now?

According to HashRateIndex:

BTC is up 18% in 9 months

Miner profitability is down 10%

Factors:

Higher mining difficulty (the network keeps adjusting to maintain 10-minute blocks).

Lower on-chain transaction demand = weaker fee revenue.

The hashprice index (profitability per PH/s) is at 54 PH/s, down from 59 PH/s a month ago. Still, even rigs like the Bitmain S19 XP remain profitable at $0.09/kWh, so it’s not exactly panic mode.

Enter AI: The New Rival ️

Another wrinkle: miners are eyeing AI data centers as a juicier use of their infrastructure.

TeraWulf (WULF) struck a $3.2B deal with Google (14% equity stake) to fund an AI campus.

Iren (ex-Iris Energy) is going heavy on Nvidia GPUs in Texas & Canada.

Hive is putting $30M into GPU expansion in Quebec.

The narrative is shifting: hashrate vs. GPU clusters. But the Bitcoin network itself? Still thriving.

Fundamentals: Still Bulletproof

Bitcoin’s hashrate: ~960M TH/s, near ATH.

Up 7% in 3 months.

No clear evidence of miners being under liquidation stress.

In other words: the network is shrugging off miner sales. Corporate and institutional demand (think MSTR, ETFs, etc.) can easily soak up the selling.

The Bottom Line

Yes, miners sold off big — but fundamentals suggest this isn’t the start of a miner capitulation spiral. Instead, it looks more like cash flow balancing + AI pivot hype than systemic weakness.

What’s your take?

Normal miner rebalancing?

Or early signs of stress in the mining sector as AI competition heats up?

Since 2021, the Lazarus Group's activities in the Web3 space intensified, stealing billions from DeFi projects. Some high-profile thefts include a $625 million Axie Infinity Ronin Network Hack in March 2022 and Poly Network in August 2021. In 2023, the concentration of this group on the CeFi targets could be noted mainly in the third quarter, when this group managed to steal $208.6 million, or 30% of all losses in the quarter, to the crypto ecosystem. Further hacks during the period included CoinEx, Alphapo, Stake, and Coinspaid, where a total of $308.6 million was disclosed as being lost between June and September 2023.

In 2024 and 2025, the group's attacks shifted focus towards centralized exchanges. In June 2023, they breached Atomic Wallet, stealing over $100 million from users. By February 2025, they carried out their largest crypto heist yet, infiltrating Bybit's multi-signature wallet solution called Safe{Wallet}, and making off with $1.5 billion in Ethereum. These incidents underscore the group's evolving tactics and their focus on high-value targets, exploiting both CeFi and DeFi vulnerabilities.

What happens when celebrity hype meets Solana memecoins? The YZY launch gave us a textbook pump-and-dump, and the blockchain evidence is damning.

The Pump

YZY launched on Solana and exploded +1,400% in an hour, topping out at $3.

Over 56,000 wallets interacted with the token in less than 24 hours.

The top 13 wallets walked away with $24.5M, dumping into retail frenzy.

The Dump

Within a day, YZY collapsed –74%, trading around $0.77.

Out of the first 99 buyers, only 9 still held tokens.

One unlucky wallet ate a $1.8M realized loss, another lost $1.2M, and one poor soul is still holding with an $800K paper loss.

The Suspects

Snipers & insiders were first in line.

Blockchain sleuths linked the very first buyer to the same wallet that sniped Trump’s memecoin.

Another sniper, “Naseem,” is tied to wallets behind the shady LIBRA token — an operation that extracted tens of millions previously.

Bubblemaps summed it up:

“There’s an elite group of snipers who don’t compete but coordinate, making millions destroying charts.”

️ The Pattern

YZY isn’t an outlier. We’ve seen the same movie before:

HAWK (TikTok influencer Haliey Welch): +90% dump within hours.

Jenner, Iggy, Lindsay Lohan: all tangled in pump-and-dump style memecoin schemes.

Retail loses millions. Snipers + insiders pocket millions.

Verdict
This isn’t “onboarding new people into crypto.” It looks more like wealth transfer from retail to insiders, dressed up with celebrity names.

Crypto Detective’s Note:
If you’re trading celeb coins, assume the insiders are already positioned before you even see the chart. Always check early wallets, liquidity pools, and on-chain clustering before apeing in.

Animoca Brands’ Tower (TOWER) token has been on an absolute tear, pumping 214% in the past month — and yes, it’s turning heads.

The rally kicked off after chairman Yat Siu gave the token some love on social media, tying the hype to the reboot of Wreck League, Animoca’s PvP fighting game, plus some strong trending action on Base and Farcaster.

What’s Driving Tower?

Utility token across Crazy Kings, Crazy Defense Heroes, and Wreck League.

Available on Ethereum, Solana, TON, and Polygon.

Animoca announced open-market buybacks starting August 5, a classic bullish move that reduces supply.

No investor presale — it was one of Animoca’s first true community Web3 gaming tokens.

At the time of writing:

$TOWER = $0.0019 (+214% in 30 days).

For context: ETH is “only” up 27% (to $4,534).

Still down ~99% from its 2021 ATH, but hey, welcome to gaming tokens.

The Community Vibe

Boxmining: “$TOWER reversal is gonna melt faces.”

Hoogie: “It’s not just a gaming token.. It’s a builder-powered ecosystem.”

Saanjana Nikita: Calls it a “bear market gem.”

Clearly, the Web3 gaming crowd sees this as more than just a meme pump.

Bigger Picture: Web3 Gaming Momentum

$60M invested in July into Web3 gaming (DappRadar). That’s a 94% jump from June.

Daily active wallets in blockchain gaming up 2% to 4.9M.

opBNB, Sei, and Ronin networks are leading the way.

Big moves: Gunzilla Games’ Off The Grid launched on PlayStation/Xbox/PC, while Lumiterra on Ronin cracked 300k daily wallets.

Even outside of tokens, the space is buzzing with activity.

Bonus Round: AI in Gaming

Immutable’s game director Patrick Wagner says AI won’t replace devs anytime soon:

“I’ve yet to see a game built fully by AI that’s actually successful and fun.”

So for now, it’s humans 1, AI 0 — though AI might still speed things up behind the scenes.

Forum Question:
Do you think $TOWER is just riding hype (and destined for another 99% retrace), or is this the start of Web3 gaming’s real comeback?

MBK plans to offer the Bitcoin settlement service through domestic real estate brokers and its overseas subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Estonia. The company is also exploring offering 19 urban properties valued at approximately $56 million to foreign buyers via the platform. Regulatory compliance, custody arrangements, and anti-money laundering controls will be key factors influencing adoption, as Japan’s Financial Services Agency monitors cryptocurrency-based real estate transactions.

Beyond privacy laws, the FSB highlights poor data quality from crypto providers. Authorities rely on fragmented or commercial sources, which lack consistency and accuracy.

Despite similar warnings four years ago, progress has been limited. Effective global regulation remains challenged by privacy protections and insufficient data infrastructure, leaving regulators struggling to track financial stability risks in the crypto sector.

A small DPRK team linked to a $680K crypto hack in June has been exposed using fake identities, Google products, and freelance platforms to penetrate the Web3 industry.

️ Key findings (via @zachxbt):

The six-person team used at least 31 fake identities with real government IDs, phone numbers, and purchased Upwork/LinkedIn accounts.

Posed as engineers from Polygon Labs, OpenSea, and Chainlink in scripted interviews.

Secured jobs on Upwork as blockchain devs, accessed companies using AnyDesk, VPNs, and Google tools for ops and comms.

Monthly expenses to run the op: $1,489 (as shown in internal docs).

Tied to $680K exploit on Favrr in June 2025 via wallet 0x78e1a.

Used Payoneer to convert fiat to crypto.

Leaked docs show:

Interview prep docs.

Curiosity in AI firms and ERC-20 deployment on Solana.

Chrome profiles, Google Drive exports, and budget spreadsheets in English via translation tools.

🧠 Why it matters:

DPRK ops aren’t always sophisticated, just persistent.

Lax hiring and minimal due diligence = big vulnerabilities.

U.S. Treasury recently sanctioned multiple actors linked to similar rings.

Takeaway for crypto orgs:
Stronger due diligence and better platform coordination are urgently needed.

The Conway-Benioff rift reflects broader shifts in Silicon Valley politics, with some tech leaders publicly backing Trump despite prior Democratic support.

Meanwhile, autonomous delivery experimentation continues in Phoenix. Waymo, known for robotaxis, is leveraging its tech for DoorDash deliveries, testing both logistics and customer adoption of trunk-based handoffs.

This convergence of tech, politics, and innovation highlights ongoing challenges and experiments in how Silicon Valley companies balance public perception, operational testing, and cutting-edge automation.

A small DPRK team linked to a $680K crypto hack in June has been exposed using fake identities, Google products, and freelance platforms to penetrate the Web3 industry.

️ Key findings (via @zachxbt):

The six-person team used at least 31 fake identities with real government IDs, phone numbers, and purchased Upwork/LinkedIn accounts.

Posed as engineers from Polygon Labs, OpenSea, and Chainlink in scripted interviews.

Secured jobs on Upwork as blockchain devs, accessed companies using AnyDesk, VPNs, and Google tools for ops and comms.

Monthly expenses to run the op: $1,489 (as shown in internal docs).

Tied to $680K exploit on Favrr in June 2025 via wallet 0x78e1a.

Used Payoneer to convert fiat to crypto.

Leaked docs show:

Interview prep docs.

Curiosity in AI firms and ERC-20 deployment on Solana.

Chrome profiles, Google Drive exports, and budget spreadsheets in English via translation tools.

🧠 Why it matters:

DPRK ops aren’t always sophisticated, just persistent.

Lax hiring and minimal due diligence = big vulnerabilities.

U.S. Treasury recently sanctioned multiple actors linked to similar rings.

Takeaway for crypto orgs:
Stronger due diligence and better platform coordination are urgently needed.

Despite October’s reduced losses, experts warn of evolving threats. State-sponsored hackers, including North Korea-linked groups, are experimenting with embedding malicious code into blockchain networks. The low losses may signal only a temporary reprieve, not lasting security for DeFi protocols.

Markets have enough enemies: central banks, unexpected earnings misses, rogue tweets from billionaires. The last thing you need is your own brain quietly kneecapping your trades.

Yet, that’s exactly what happens every day — traders falling prey to cognitive biases, those sneaky mental shortcuts that can distort judgment, inflate confidence, and drain your account.

Let’s pull back the curtain on the biggest culprits.

Anchoring Bias: Marrying a Trade

Ever fall in love with a number? Traders do this all the time. Anchoring bias happens when you fixate on a past price and let it lead your present decisions.

Example: You bought C3 AI AI at $45 a pop. Now it’s under $20, and you refuse to sell because “it’ll get back to $50 and beyond.” Newsflash: the market doesn’t care about your entry. Anchoring keeps you tethered to arbitrary price points while the trend moves on without you.

How to counter it: Use hard data, not nostalgia. If the chart screams breakdown, like the recent drop in AI thanks to a sales disaster, stop waiting for a magical return to your anchor. Trade the price action, not the ghost of your buy button.

Loss Aversion: Pain > Pleasure

Behavioral economists tell us that losing $100 feels about twice as bad as winning $100 feels good. Traders know this instinctively — which is why they often let losers run and cut winners short.

Think of it: you close a trade that’s up 5% because you “don’t want to lose the gains.” Meanwhile, you let the -20% red candle sit there because “it’s only a loss if I sell.”

How to counter it: Flip the script. Place stop-losses and honor them religiously, especially in peak earnings season. Train your brain to view losses as part of the game — like paying rent to the market for playing on its field. Or tuition fee for your hands-on education.

Confirmation Bias: The Echo Chamber Trade

You think Ethereum ETHUSD is going to $5,000. So, naturally, you seek out influencers, news, and even memes that validate your thesis, while conveniently ignoring that pesky Fed statement hinting at liquidity tightening.

This is confirmation bias: curating your information diet to make yourself feel smart, secure, and validated.

How to counter it: Actively hunt for disconfirming evidence. If you’re long, force yourself to read the bear case. If it rattles you, that’s a sign your conviction might be built on shaky ground. Also, Ethereum has indeed been on a pump so strong, you’d believe it’s almost unstoppable.

Recency Bias: Yesterday = Forever

Markets swing, sometimes violently. Recency bias tricks you into believing that whatever just happened will keep happening. The GBPUSD advanced last Thursday? Must keep climbing further.

Traders caught in this loop over-leverage into recent patterns, forgetting that markets are professional curveball pitchers.

How to counter it: Zoom out. Intraday candles may trick you into seeing things that aren’t there in the long run. Daily, weekly and monthly charts often tell a different story.

Gambler’s Fallacy: “I’m Due” Syndrome

Every roulette player knows this one: if red’s hit five times in a row, black must be next. Traders fall for the same illusion. If EURUSD has surged for eight straight sessions, surely it must drop… right?

Wrong. The market doesn’t know it “owes anything.” Trends can persist longer than your margin account can survive. Reminder time: John Maynard Keynes' famously said, "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

How to counter it: Respect momentum. Use indicators like RSI or moving averages to spot genuine exhaustion, not just wishful thinking.

Overconfidence Bias: I’m Smarter Than Them

This one’s pretty widespread. After a few wins, traders start believing they’ve cracked the code. Suddenly, leverage dials up, position sizes balloon, and risk management gets left on read.

Markets love humbling overconfident traders. That “can’t miss” setup? It misses. That oversized bet? Blown up. Overconfidence is why many promising traders don’t survive past year one.

How to counter it: Journal your trades. Cold, hard data has a way of deflating ego bubbles. And size positions consistently — the market doesn’t care if you “feel” more confident this time.

Herd Mentality: Everyone Can’t Be Wrong… Right?

If all of Reddit says “buy the dip,” surely they can’t be wrong. But if you’re hearing it from everyone, odds are the move already happened. Herd mentality gives comfort but rarely alpha.

It explains bubbles, FOMO runs, and why traders pile into a hot stock minutes before it tanks.

How to counter it: If you’re chasing a move because everyone else is, pause. Ask: what’s my actual edge here? If the answer is “none,” step away.

The Meta-Bias: Thinking You Have None

The cruel twist? Once you know about these biases, you might think you’ve conquered them. But that may not be the case. Awareness helps, but biases are hardwired into human behavior.

That’s why risk management exists. Stop-losses, adequate leverage, proper diversification — they’re not just tools, they’re counter-bias survival kits.

Final Word: Outsmarting Yourself

The market isn’t your enemy (unless you view BlackRock, Ken Griffin, the hedge fund bros, and other retail traders as enemies). Anchors, overconfidence, herds, recency — these are real chart criminals draining accounts in broad daylight.

Smart traders don’t try to eliminate biases. They build guardrails to minimize the damage. Because at the end of the day, you can’t reprogram human psychology. But you can protect your portfolio from it.

Off to you: Are you tempted to “average down because it’s due” or “let it ride because I’m on fire?” Share your thoughts in the comment section!

Just when you thought the markets couldn’t get any more surreal, South Park steps in to remind us that satire is sometimes the sharpest TA.

This week’s episode, “Sickofancy,” took direct aim at U.S. President Donald Trump’s cozy relationship with crypto — turning the Oval Office into a bizarre parade of tech execs offering him Bitcoin tributes like medieval vassals.

Who showed up in the roast?

A parodied Sundar Pichai (holding BTC like it’s a fruitcake at Christmas).

A sycophantic David Sacks, now dubbed White House crypto + AI czar.

Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, and Zuck all lining up with their “gifts.”

Meanwhile, the main storyline? A farmer turns his busted weed business into an AI startup, guided by ChatGPT, and is told: “Just butter up Trump with crypto.” That’s how the show satirized both the AI hype cycle and Washington’s sudden “pro-crypto” shift.

Other Highlights

Trump, once again, is drawn with South Park’s signature gag anatomy (small penis, Satan romance).

VP JD Vance portrayed as a pudgy toddler tagging along.

Washington, D.C. shown crawling with National Guard troops after Trump’s recent deployment order.

The White House wasn’t amused. Officials blasted the show as a “fourth-rate production” clinging to relevance — though Paramount did just pay $1.5 billion for its streaming rights.

South Park’s Ongoing Crypto Obsession
This isn’t the first time Cartman & co. have memed our industry:

2022: Matt Damon roasted for his Crypto.com ad.

2021: Bitcoin as the “mainstream payment” of the future.

2021 (again): NFTs mocked as Ponzi-esque “viable investments.”

️ Takeaway for Crypto Folks
Love or hate Trump, love or hate South Park — the fact that Bitcoin and NFTs are now recurring punchlines in mainstream satire shows just how deep crypto has penetrated pop culture. When BTC is both a store of value and a comedy prop, you know we’ve crossed over into the zeitgeist.

Question to the room: Do you think satire like this actually dents public trust in crypto — or does it ironically accelerate adoption by keeping us in the spotlight?

Governments are finally waking up to the reality that half of kids online have seen harmful content. Laws like the UK’s Online Safety Act are a step in the right direction.

But here’s the problem: the execution is clunky.

Old Tools, New Problems
Sites are rolling out age gates that rely on:

Uploading photos ️

Credit card checks

Or worse, handing over personal ID scans

The result? Instead of compliance, users are finding workarounds. VPN downloads spiked 1,800% after age-checks went live. And when users dodge verification, they don’t stop browsing—they just drift toward sketchy, unregulated sites. That’s less safe for kids and riskier for adults.

Why Web2 Verification Fails
It’s not that people object to proving their age. It’s that they don’t trust the process.

Adult content sites (and gambling platforms, fintechs, etc.) become juicy honeypots for hackers once they start collecting IDs, selfies, and credit card details. History tells us it’s not if a breach happens, but when.

So users push back. Not because they want to break the rules, but because they want their privacy respected.

️ Web3’s Fix: Privacy-First Compliance
Enter zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs). Instead of handing your passport to every site, you:

Verify your age once with a certified provider.

Link that verification cryptographically to your blockchain wallet.

Use ZKPs to prove “I’m over 18” without revealing who you are.

️ The site knows you’re compliant.
️ You keep your identity private.
️ Hackers don’t get a giant database of personal info.

Think of it as a “don’t show the whole ID, just show the green light” system.

️ Balancing Privacy with Accountability
Some worry this creates a shield for bad actors. But ZKP-based verification doesn’t mean law enforcement is powerless. If required, protocols can map a blockchain account back to the verified identity under due process.

That balance matters: protect privacy for everyday users, but retain accountability for malicious actors.

Beyond Adult Content
This model isn’t just for age-gating:

Gambling sites

Trade finance

E-commerce with restricted products

Any domain where identity checks are required could shift to private compliance instead of mass data collection.

The Bigger Picture
What this movement really shows is:

Users want privacy + safety, not one at the expense of the other.

Outdated Web2 checks won’t cut it.

Blockchain gives us the chance to redesign identity as a selective signal, not a surveillance tool.

If regulators and platforms get this right, age verification won’t feel like a privacy nightmare. Instead, it could be the first real-world win for ZKPs and Web3 identity systems.

Question for you: Would you trust a zero-knowledge proof to verify your age, or do you think governments will still push for “full ID or nothing”?

A new FinCEN advisory just dropped, and the numbers are staggering:

Between 2020 and 2024, US banks handled an estimated $312 billion in laundered money tied to Chinese networks. That averages out to over $62 billion a year flowing through the US financial system — not exactly pocket change.

How It Works

Chinese laundering networks have essentially partnered with Mexico-based drug cartels.

Cartels need to wash US dollar drug proceeds.

Chinese gangs desperately want US dollars to get around strict Chinese currency controls.

Result? A symbiotic black-market bromance.

FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki summed it up: these networks don’t just wash drug money — they’re also knee-deep in human trafficking, healthcare fraud, elder abuse, and a cool $53.7 billion in shady real estate deals.

But Wait… Isn’t Crypto Supposed to Be the Big Bad? 🧐

Here’s where things get spicy: despite these massive numbers, politicians ( Elizabeth Warren) keep pointing fingers at crypto as the main villain in money laundering.

Warren has repeatedly warned that criminals are “increasingly turning to cryptocurrency.”

And yes, illicit activity exists in crypto… but perspective matters.

According to Chainalysis:

Illicit crypto activity over the last five years = $189 billion.

US banks laundered $312 billion in just four years — and that’s only from Chinese networks.

For even more context:

Global money laundering (UN estimate): > $2 trillion every year.

Crypto’s illicit volume: < 1% of total crypto transactions (per TRM Labs).

The Takeaway

Traditional banks remain the real laundromats for global crime, while crypto is often scapegoated because it’s new, flashy, and easier to demonize.

FinCEN’s findings highlight a broader truth: organized crime runs on fiat pipelines, not blockchains.

What do you think — is crypto unfairly treated, or does the space still need stricter guardrails to avoid becoming the next $312B headline?

Roman Storm’s conviction is shaping up as one of the most important crypto-legal battles since Silk Road.

Why? Because it sits right at the intersection of:

Immutable code vs. criminal intent

Privacy rights vs. public safety

Commodity vs. security classification

Let’s unpack.

1. What makes Tornado Cash different from Silk Road?
Ross Ulbricht argued he just “built the platform.” The courts said otherwise: because Silk Road was designed with criminal use in mind, he was liable.

Storm’s defense hinges on the fact that Tornado Cash is immutable smart contracts — once deployed, no one “controls” them. In fact, in the Van Loon v. Treasury case, courts ruled immutable contracts aren’t property.

The prosecution’s counter? Mens rea — if you design the tool with intent for it to be misused, that intent sticks. Lack of control later doesn’t erase responsibility at creation.

️ 2. Privacy vs. Security: An Old Fight, New Arena
This isn’t the first time privacy tech has been on trial. Think:

WhatsApp encryption debates.

Apple vs. FBI over the San Bernardino iPhone.

Governments argue: privacy can’t come at the expense of public safety.
Crypto purists argue: privacy is a human right.

The Tornado Cash conviction forces the question: is privacy tech itself criminal — or only its misuse?

3. Legal Grey Zones: No “Crypto Privacy Law” Exists
As Charlyn Ho notes, there’s no statute that directly protects “crypto privacy.” Instead, we rely on:

State-level privacy laws (e.g. California CCPA, treating wallet addresses as personal data).

Broad regulatory interpretation of “pseudonymous” data that can be re-linked to identities.

So Storm’s case is being squeezed into frameworks never designed for blockchain.

4. Global Policy Split

US: leaning toward stablecoins = okay, mixers = risky.

EU/China: favor CBDCs (state control) over crypto privacy tools.

Hong Kong: encourages stablecoin development even while China bans it locally.

The White House itself is split: Its own July report praised self-custody & individual freedom, while Storm’s conviction shows prosecutors taking the opposite stance.

5. Why Classification Matters
The SEC vs. CFTC tug-of-war still rages. The proposed CLARITY Act aims to define what’s a commodity vs. what’s a security. Until that’s settled, crypto builders face liability whiplash.

If Tornado Cash is considered “infrastructure,” then Storm is guilty of intent.
If it’s considered “just code,” then liability should evaporate.

Takeaway
Roman Storm’s conviction isn’t just about mixers. It’s about whether writing decentralized code can make you criminally liable forever.

For developers, that’s existential. For regulators, it’s precedent-setting. For traders? It’s another reminder that privacy coins, mixers, and on-chain anonymity are going to be the next battleground in U.S. crypto policy.

Question for the room: Is Storm’s conviction justice served, or does it cross the line into criminalizing code itself?

The AI boom benefits AWS and competitors, with Oracle and OpenAI securing a $300 billion cloud compute deal starting in 2027, and Google and Anthropic signing tens-of-billions deals. Amazon continues to invest aggressively in AI infrastructure, even as it cuts 14,000 corporate jobs to redirect resources toward AI strategy.

Following the September 22 announcement, MBK Co., Ltd’s stock rose sharply during intraday trading on September 24, reaching ¥319 before closing at ¥281, up about 1.44% from the previous close. Analysts noted that the spike reflected investor interest in the Bitcoin-based settlement service and its potential to enhance cross-border property investment operations.