Saturday, October 25, 2025The Guardian

‘He’s one of the few politicians who likes crypto’: my day with the UK tech bros hosting Nigel Farage

The Reform UK leader is courting the crypto community in the hope it could become a campaign funding baseIt is a grey morning in Shadwell, east London. But inside the old shell of Tobacco Dock, the gloom gives way to pulsating neon lights, flashy cars and cryptocurrency chatter.Evangelists for Web3, a vision for the next era of the internet, have descended on the old trading dock to network for two days. For many, the main event is one man: Nigel Farage.

Thursday, October 23, 2025The Guardian

Surge in UK savings lost to investment scams, with fake crypto thought to top the list

Banking industry data shows £629m was stolen in six months from fraud that included gold, wine and property The amount of money lost to investment scams by UK consumers has leapt 55% in a year as cryptocurrency fraudsters intensify their efforts to cheat people out of their savings, data shows.Official UK banking industry data shows that while the total amount stolen by fraudsters increased 3% to £629m in the first six months of this year compared with last year, investment scam losses surged, reaching £97.7m during the period – more than £500,000 a day.

Thursday, October 23, 2025The Guardian

Trump pardons founder of Binance, world’s largest crypto exchange

Changpeng Zhao pleaded guilty to failing to stop money laundering in 2023 and was sentenced to four monthsDonald Trump issued a pardon for the founder of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange on Thursday.“President Trump exercised his constitutional authority by issuing a pardon for Mr Zhao, who was prosecuted by the Biden administration in their war on cryptocurrency,” a White House statement said. “The war on crypto is over.”

Thursday, October 23, 2025The Guardian

Melania Trump’s meme coin architects accused of pump-and-dump fraud in lawsuit

First lady not named in suit in which investors allege Meteora executives created coin they knew would plummetThe designers of a cryptocurrency launched by the US first lady, Melania Trump, in January were accused in court filings on Tuesday of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme.The $MELANIA coins were released for just a few cents each on 19 January, the day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as US president. In addition to $MELANIA, Donald Trump launched $TRUMP a few hours before his inauguration.

Thursday, October 23, 2025The Guardian

Donors for Trump’s $300m White House ballroom include Google, Apple and Palantir

Work under way to demolish entire East Wing as president upped cost of new structure from $200m to $300mThe White House has revealed that major companies in the tech, defense and crypto industries are helping Donald Trump fund his $300m ballroom at the White House, where work is under way to demolish the entire East Wing.The list of donors includes tech companies Apple, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft and Google; the defense contractors Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Palantir; and the communication companies T-Mobile and Comcast, according to CNN.

Thursday, October 16, 2025The Guardian

How I Made a Million in 90 Days review – this wildly funny stunt is an ingenious take on extreme wealth

Lovable prankster-satirist Oobah Butler takes on hustle culture by trying to get rich quick. His tour of crypto-CEOs exposes the bleakness of their world – but it sure makes for comedy goldNear the start of this hilarious and ambiently horrifying documentary, presenter Oobah Butler informs the viewer what exactly is riding on the success of his latest stunt. Emerging from a meeting at Channel 4’s headquarters, he floats a contract in front of the camera. In signing this, Butler claims, he is “guaranteeing that I am going to make a million pounds in 90 days”. If he succeeds, he’ll be a rich man. If he fails, “I suppose I won’t be working with Channel 4 again.”If Butler is yet to make it on to your radar, those stakes may sound negligible – does it really matter whether this man ever makes another TV programme? To that I say: yes, it absolutely does. Over the past decade, Butler has established himself as one of the most enjoyably idiosyncratic prankster-satirists of the modern age. He gained global attention with a 2017 project for Vice magazine, in which he managed to get a completely fictional establishment – “The Shed at Dulwich” – listed as London’s top restaurant on TripAdvisor, questioning the effectiveness of the algorithm (when TripAdvisor became aware that it was a fake, they took it down).

Wednesday, October 15, 2025The Guardian

Chinese company gives an Eric Trump crypto firm preferential access to tech

SEC filings show Bitmain gave firm partially owned by Eric Trump unusually generous terms on equipmentA private Chinese company is giving preferential access to its technology and providing unusually beneficial payment terms on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of specialized equipment to a firm partially owned by Eric Trump, according to industry sources and Securities and Exchange Commission records.The company, Bitmain, has faced concerns over the potential national security risks of its technology, with one Republican congressman asking the treasury department to review some of its business dealings in the United States.

Wednesday, October 15, 2025The Guardian

‘Please can I have a million pounds?’ A documentary-maker’s wild attempt to strike it rich in 90 days

From tricking art dealers to making frightening deals with crypto entrepreneurs, Oobah Butler’s new documentary sees him launch an almighty cash grab. Here, he tells the story of his rollercoaster rideI’ve never met a billionaire before. And this isn’t how I imagined it would go. Don’t get me wrong: his brightly lit Manhattan office is pleasant, but not unusual. The pipes are scalding hot. As his assistant leads me through to the meeting room, I’m fairly sure I can spot discarded paper plates from pizza slices poking out of the kitchen bin. In other words, it is similar to most of the city’s workplaces.I’m here to meet Jim McKelvey, somebody Forbes will tell you has roughly £1.3bn to his name from co-founding the payment app Square. Jim is straight off a flight from Tokyo, I’m told. He enters the room and shakes my hand politely, but soon seems agitated. I’m not sure whether it’s his lack of sleep or if this is just how people who make more money during power naps than you earn annually deal with potentially having their time wasted. In other words, I’m going to have to ease my way in gently.

Tuesday, October 14, 2025The Guardian

US and UK put sanctions on alleged Cambodia cyber-scammers and seize $15bn in bitcoin

People trafficking among allegations against six people who face measures including property freezes and travel bansThe US and UK have seized $15bn (£11.3bn) in bitcoin and frozen London properties owned by the alleged leaders of scam centres in Cambodia that trick victims around the world and torture their trafficked workers.Two Chinese-born businessmen are among the six people hit by travel bans and sanctions that aim to tackle the growing threat of organised crime gangs carrying out online fraud globally on an industrial scale.

Monday, October 13, 2025The Guardian

Markets rebound amid latest US-China tariff spat as traders look to possible ‘Taco trade’

US S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite indexes rise and cryptocurrencies rebound after Trump post on Truth SocialBusiness live – latest updatesGlobal stock markets have edged higher and cryptocurrencies rebounded amid signs that a new front in the US-China trade war may not be as severe as first feared.Tensions between Washington and Beijing escalated again on Friday and over the weekend, as Donald Trump threatened to impose additional US tariffs of 100% on China starting next month.

Thursday, October 9, 2025The Guardian

‘The debasement trade’: is this what’s driving gold, bitcoin and shares to record highs?

Investors fear governments will not – or cannot – rein in borrowing so are putting their money elsewhereNils Pratley: the AI valuation bubble is now getting sillyInvestors are piling into assets such as gold, bitcoin and shares amid worries about government debt, central bank independence, and the weakness of major currencies such as the dollar. The trade has even been given a moniker: the “debasement trade”. But what does it mean?

Saturday, October 4, 2025The Guardian

The rise of digital money poses significant challenges for regulators

Bank of England is at crossroads over the use of crytocurrencies and establishing a financial framework for transactionsThere are those among us who like the idea of swiping and tapping their way through life, armed with a lifetime of digital information as they enter buildings, book online appointments and take train rides to work.Others are not so keen, fearing that big brother databases chock full of personal details will one day control their movements, if that is not happening already.

Monday, September 29, 2025The Guardian

Woman admits UK bitcoin fraud charges after ‘world’s largest’ crypto seizure

Zhimin Qian pleads guilty after wallets with 61,000 bitcoins, currently worth over £5bn, seized from north London homeA woman has been convicted for her role in a multibillion-pound bitcoin fraud after what is thought to have been the world’s largest cryptocurrency seizure.Zhimin Qian, also known as Yadi Zhang, 45, orchestrated a fraud in China between 2014 and 2017 that left 128,000 people out of pocket.

Friday, September 19, 2025The Guardian

Partner at top libel firm hired ‘in furtherance of fraud’, tribunal rules

Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal issues decision in case against Claire Gill, a partner at Carter-Ruck, over legal threats on behalf of clientA partner at the top libel firm Carter-Ruck was hired “in furtherance of fraud” when she sent legal threats on behalf of a multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency scam, a tribunal has ruled.Claire Frances Gill is being prosecuted by the Solicitors Regulation Authority for allegedly issuing an inappropriate threat on behalf of the scheme, OneCoin, and its mastermind, Ruja Ignatova.

Saturday, September 13, 2025The Guardian

Former aide to de facto leader of Georgia being held as ‘personal prisoner’, mother claims

Marina Ramazashvili says son, Giorgi Bachiashvili, was the victim of a ‘vendetta’ by billionaire politicianThe mother of a jailed former aide to Bidzina Ivanishvili has accused the de facto leader of Georgia of treating her son as his “personal prisoner” as she appealed to the west for help.Marina Ramazashvili, a renowned ophthalmologist in Georgia, said Giorgi Bachiashvili, who has allegedly been beaten in his prison cell, was the victim of a “vendetta” waged by the billionaire politician.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025The Guardian

Trump fortune balloons by billions after family firm’s crypto token starts trading

World Liberty Financial’s digital token $WLFI fell in price on first day, a year after launch by Trump family and partnersThe Trump family’s cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, put its namesake digital tokens up for sale on Monday, adding some $5bn in paper value to Donald Trump’s family fortune. The token, known as $WLFI, fell in value on Monday in their first day of trading.The World Liberty tokens were sold to investors after the Trump family and its business partners last year launched the venture, a decentralized finance platform that has also issued a stablecoin, a cryptocurrency meant to maintain a specific price by tying its value to a specific asset.

Wednesday, August 20, 2025The Guardian

Trump has bought more than $100m in bonds while president, disclosure shows

Forms posted online show Trump made over 600 financial purchases the day after he was inaugurated for second termDonald Trump has bought more than $100m in company, state and municipal bonds since taking office in January, according to new disclosures which shed further light on the vast holdings of the US’s billionaire president.The forms, posted online on Tuesday, show the Republican former real estate mogul made more than 600 financial purchases since 21 January, the day after he was inaugurated for his second term in the White House.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025The Guardian

There is no ‘Trump Doctrine’ in foreign policy. Just chaos | Sidney Blumenthal

The recent summit meeting in Alaska between Trump and Putin was nothing short of a theater of the absurdAll the elaborate efforts of the European allies to prevent Donald Trump from prostrating himself before Vladimir Putin came to naught at their summit meeting in Alaska. Flattering, coddling and petting the big baby appeared to have been in vain. Before the 15 August summit, the Europeans persuaded Trump to impose new sanctions if Putin would not agree to a ceasefire, which would serve as a prerequisite for any negotiations. But Trump willfully tossed policy like a stuffed animal out of the window of “the Beast,” the presidential car as he eagerly invited Putin to join him for a triumphant chariot ride.The Europeans scrambled once again, trying to get the addled Trump back on the page he was on before the summit. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sped to Washington to confer with Trump to try to pick up the pieces. At their last encounter, Trump jibed: “You don’t have any cards.” But Trump had just handed over his cards to Putin. Zelenskyy was not about to play the appeasement card. The European leaders gathered in an extraordinary posse to accompany Zelenskyy in an attempt to restore a unified western position. Unlike the last Zelenskyy meeting with Trump, he was not hectored. With the Ukrainian leader surrounded by a protective phalanx, Trump made agreeable sounding but vague gestures about a future summit with both Zelenskyy and Putin. Trump seemed favorable, if indefinite and imprecise, about western forces stationed in Ukraine to maintain its sovereignty. But the notion of a ceasefire, pressed again by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, had evaporated. While the European recovery effort took place at the White House, Russian bombs rained down. Trump dreams of receiving the Nobel peace prize. Before the summit, he called the Norwegian finance minister to lobby him.

Tuesday, August 12, 2025The Guardian

Crypto mogul Do Kwon pleads guilty to fraud for $40bn market collapse

Terraform Labs co-founder, pleading guilty to two charges, was accused of misleading investors in 2021 about TerraUSDDo Kwon, the South Korean entrepreneur behind two cryptocurrencies that lost an estimated $40bn in 2022 and caused the market to implode, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two US charges of conspiracy to defraud and wire fraud.Kwon, 33, who co-founded Singapore-based Terraform Labs and developed the TerraUSD and Luna currencies, entered the plea at a federal court hearing in New York. He had pleaded not guilty in January to a nine-count indictment charging him with securities fraud, wire fraud, commodities fraud and money-laundering conspiracy.

Saturday, August 9, 2025The Guardian

Trump-backed World Liberty proposes $1.5bn crypto holder, Bloomberg News reports

Co-founded by president’s eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr, World Liberty has earned the family $500m since its launchWorld Liberty Financial, a crypto venture backed by Donald Trump and the US president’s family, is sounding out investors for a $1.5bn fundraising round meant to set up a public company that will hold its WLFI tokens, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.The structure of the deal is yet to be finalized, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter, adding that large investors in the crypto and tech space had been approached for the venture.

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